My 6 year-old son really wants a RTS after seeing one at the LFS. My inclination is that it's a bad idea as I am concerned about aggression in my peaceful tank.
Tank: 29g planted with driftwood. Fully cycled and established.
2 Dwarf Gouramis
3 Swordtails
1 Busynose Pleco
bio-load wise there's plenty of room. I'm fairly experienced but I've never kept a shark before and I don't want an aggressive fish stressing my other fish. Any advice is appreciated.
Last edited by Guzalot; August 9th, 2009 at 09:12 PM.
I can only speak for myself: I had a RTS for about a year, it was beautiful and besides an occasional territorial nip I had no problems. Once it grew to about 4 inches, it started to chase everything in my tank. "He" was relentless, never stopping! I could see how it started to take it's toll on my Rosy Barbs and Rainbows. I had plans to take him to the LFS but was torn because his color was breathtaking and looked so nice in the tank. The following week I found him floating on top of the water, guess it was a bitter sweet ending.
RTS are territorial and since they tend to prefer cruising the substrate a tank at least 36" long is the minimum. Which in most cases means a tank of at least 33 gallons.
Hello Guz. I too would like to the the red tail shark (RTS)in a larger tank. Same for a Rainbow Shark as they are very similar in aggression issues. Both are very territorial fish and grow to about the same size. 5 to 6 inches. I have the Rainbow Shark in my 155g and he is still aggressive at times towards my Silver Dollars. However, he doesn't have the nerve to pester my Blood Red Parrots
Ken
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