cichlid compatability

Byron

Appearances can be deceptive. Unless you are an ichthyologist, I would heed what those people advise. I don't make this up.

A Red Tailed Shark needs space to grow to its 5-6 inch length; without it can become stunted with internal organ development (or non-development) problems. Small spaces also make potentially large fish more likely to be aggressive, especially as they mature. A baby black bear may be cuddly and "relatively" harmless, but as it matures it will not be the same. No different with fish.

There was a thread not long ago, someone had a RTS and after a while it suddenly became a terror and killed off a couple other fish.

Please read the profile and understand about what your fish require, and be prepared to provide it or reconsider the fish. That is only humane to the respective fish.

tommaso889

okay i shall read the profiles :) and this is why i am getting i larger tak as my lfs wrongly told me that theses fish would be okay in my tank and we have already returned my albino tiger barbs as we were told they we comunity fish but found that they would not be suitable for my set up :(

kattty

well...I'm assuming bryon knows what he's talking about..but from my personal experience..it's worked out..but like i mentioned..larger space.


The first picture is of the one in the 55...as you can see..in comparsion to my almost year old Black Shark(in the 180 gallon)..totally huge difference in size..dont know if you can tell in the second picture the black tail shark IS the size of the crayon pencil lol:)

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Byron

That is the point. A 55g is providing the necessary room for the shark to properly grow and develop; a 30g does not. The shark will be better off in a 55g and less likely to become overly aggressive, though one must not forget that nature has instilled certain instincts in the fish. The black bear analogy I mentioned earlier still applies--you can "tame" (to some extent) the bear, but it is still instinctively a wild animal that expects to be master of its domain. And my second point was having other substrate fish; this is encroaching on the area that the shark regards as his.

kattty

Yeah..thats sort of what I figured..I've never had a tank smaller than 55 gallons..and I only house small specimen in that. Like Shown above..the Black Shark in my 180 gallon is much MUCH larger than the red tail shark I've only had for a couple months...:)

tommaso889

my black tail is about three and a half inches and he has a white bit at the top of his doral fin. does this mean he is fully grown as that is what i read somewhere? and i will be gettting a larger tank asap :) i have found a 125 litre one for £214 which i thought was rather good as they are about £300 elsewhere :)

kattty

Like my pictures show..my small red tail shark is nearly half the size of it's counter part nearly year old. My red tail i nowhere near done growing..Nor is my black tail ........but my black tail is probably a good 6-8 inchs or so in length..at LEAST. It's just hard to show in the picture..but..like mentioned..my redtails in with my ram and ect in the 55 gallon while my black tail is in a 180 gallon..

I've never been good at converting litres to gallons so ..lol hopefully 125 litres is big:)

tommaso889

60 litres=15 gallons...so 125=31gallons <--- rough estimate
the 125 is 32 inches long so if the shark gets to 6 inches it would have rather alot more swimming space haha and then the rams will be okay as the minimum recommendation is 12 gallons and the cory the minimum is 60 litres :)
with that it is about 55% full and 125 litres is about 38.8 us gallons i found out of aquadvisor :)

kattty

Bryon Will probably tell you that is to small..and like I mentioned, I have no experience with anything smaller than 55 gallons. My previous knowlege/research on the blacktail and red tail sharks have told me they can reach quite a large size...as mentioned my black tail which will be a year old shortly is almost 8-9 inchs already!...so thats averaging about 4 or more inchs a year....basically I think people on here try to prepare you for a long term happyness of aquatic life ..and a 38 gallon won't be sutiable for a shark long term...

That being said..If you do within the next year plan on upgrading to at least a 55..You maybe okay for another period of time....

My 55 is just over 4 feet long...and my redtail about the same size as your guy right now.

Hopefully all works out,and let us know how it goes:)..as you can see in the first picutre...the redtail shark and ram get along well haha.

tommaso889

hmm i will give it some thought :) and yes my rams and shark dont bother me well they don that i can see of i am currently looking for a larger tank :DD