Compatibility

tropicaltone

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Hi Everyone,

I have just recently setup a 4ft 220ltr tank and I would really like to keep a Red tailed black shark, sadly it has so much bad press I wonder if you can ever have a happy tank with one.

In your experience which fish are the most compatible with the Red tailed black shark?

and do you think a small shoal of 4 Golden barbs would be ok with a Red Tailed black Shark?
 
If you have a rtbs and a 4ft tank you have many options. barbs and tetras would be fine. Just stay away from anything that is dark and torpedo shaped like the rtbs.

IME with rtbs, they hate fin nippers and once they get nipped they chase them mercilessly so with barbs etc get at least 6 so they tend to keep to themselves and leave the rtbs alone. Once the rtbs establishes his dominance and the other fish know it, he's not so bad, in a 4ft long tank.
 
I keep mine in a 4 ft tank along with 12 glowlight tetras,6 corycats,2 rhapeal cats and 1 snakeskin guorami.Have had the rtbs with all but the snakeskin for over a year and he doesn't bother any of them at all.....When I added the snakeskin about 5 months ago the rtbs chased him around alot for a few days,but once the snakeskin figured out he didn't actully DO anything once he caught him he stoped running and the rtbs stoped chaseing.
 
I keep mine in a 4 ft tank along with 12 glowlight tetras,6 corycats,2 rhapeal cats and 1 snakeskin guorami.Have had the rtbs with all but the snakeskin for over a year and he doesn't bother any of them at all.....When I added the snakeskin about 5 months ago the rtbs chased him around alot for a few days,but once the snakeskin figured out he didn't actully DO anything once he caught him he stoped running and the rtbs stoped chaseing.

What a great post, imo.

I never thought of that before but after seeing your post it made me think about it and you're exactly right. The way you said it is the best example I've heard and I've tried to explain it to so many people but couldn't express it so perfectly like you did here. RTBS are akin to dogs, if something "runs" they will chase but if not, they don't bother.
 
I've just rescued an rtbs from a neighbour and was quite concerned when it started endlessly chasing a couple of the dwarf gouramis, but as Socks said, as soon as the dwarfs stop running away the rtbs looses interest and goes about his business. I have added more caves as the rtbs and the gouramis were trying to hide in the same cave ! I've had him nearly a week now and things are settling down. The only time my tank looks like complete mayhem is feeding time when the rtbs tries to defend every scrap of food from all the other inhabitants.
 
problem with rtbs is people pften keep them in tanks that don't supply them with enough territory which makes them seem more aggressive.
a four foot tank would be big enough so it shouldn't bother anything else if it's got a nice cave or somewhere to call home.

once the snakeskin figured out he didn't actully DO anything once he caught him he stoped running and the rtbs stoped chaseing.

this is a good theory but unfortunatly doesn't always work out.
i've seen fins torn to shreds by rtbs.
once there's a fish they don't like, they will chase it until the fish is dead or removed.

also, fish that swim with a wobble is a big no no.
wobbling present struggle which attracts the shark to chase it.
 
Do you think RTBS would be ok with 4 Golden Barbs, they are very peaceful fish and bright Gold and they are 3" long as they are 4 yr old adults.
 
problem with rtbs is people pften keep them in tanks that don't supply them with enough territory which makes them seem more aggressive.
a four foot tank would be big enough so it shouldn't bother anything else if it's got a nice cave or somewhere to call home.

once the snakeskin figured out he didn't actully DO anything once he caught him he stoped running and the rtbs stoped chaseing.

this is a good theory but unfortunatly doesn't always work out.
i've seen fins torn to shreds by rtbs.
once there's a fish they don't like, they will chase it until the fish is dead or removed.

also, fish that swim with a wobble is a big no no.
wobbling present struggle which attracts the shark to chase it.


Aye,may have some truth to it,i think it depends alot on the overall set up- territory's available,size of the tank and the one fish aswell.......
 
I'd recommend a group of black skirt tetras, a pleco or syno, swordtails, and a blue gourami with the RTBS.
 
This is my experience and advice of keeping RTBS;

Personality: tend to be semi-agressive or semi-territorial, they can be skittish fish and will tend to spend a fair amount of time hiding (particularly during the day time) or patrolling their territory.

Stocking RTBS with other fish: You should avoid stocking fish with RTBS that look similar to the RTBS either body shape wise or patterning/colouring wise. In the wild, RTBS will try to stake out a territory and will fight off any other RTBS that tresspass on their territory, so you should avoid keeping more than one RTBS per tank as they will often fight to the death (particularly as they mature) until one of the RTBS is removed from the tank and the other is allowed to stake out its own territory.
They are not the brightest of fish in the sense that they will often attack any fish that look similar to an RTBS, so tank mates should be chosen with care. Their personality varies a lot- some RTBS are a lot more territorial/agressive than others, but generally speaking, they fall under the semi-agressive category of fish.

Habitat/environment: RTBS will spend a lot of time either patrolling and keeping its eye on a peice of important territory of its, or hiding in its territory. They like to have somewhere they can go and be out of sight of other fish- a large pile of wood or large rocks, creating a sort of cave with many entrances, is ideal for them. RTBS are primarily bottom to middle dwelling fish in fish tanks. If you have more than one type of fish that may make a lot of use out of such types of caves, i would advise having more than one pile/cave made out of rocks/wood in the tank as the RTBS will be less inclined to defend his patch if other fish are not forced to share his cave all the time.
A soft substrate, ideally fine sand (but fine rounded gravel is acceptable) is the best as they will collect any food they find lying on the subtrate using their barbels/whiskers to eat, so the substrate must not be rough gravel as they can damage their mouths trying to eat off such a substrate.

Feeding: They are technically omnivores but their diet is much more leaning towards the herbivore end of the omnivore scale. They will eat a lot of algae given a chance (not stuck to the glass though, only on objects in the tank), and will scavenge for food along the bottom of the tank. Algae wafers/tablets, blanched and chopped up spinache, de-shelled and chopped up pease, catfish pelets, TetraPro vegetable wafers, frozen or live bloodworms and krill and various other foods make an ideal diet for them. They may sometimes clean algae off plant leaves, but will not eat the plants themselves.


Other notes: 24-26 degrees is a good temp to keep an RTBS in my experience, i would also say that the longer the tank the better. A 3ft long tank is the absolute minimum recommended length of a tank that an RTBS should be kept in- with my RTBS, i initially adopted him off a friend who had kept him in a 2.5ft long tank since the RTBS was a juvenile. He was particularly agressive while in his old tank and in the early days of me keeping him, but i have found that since he has been in my 5ft long 125gal tank he has chilled out massively and is not half as agressive as he used to be now he is in a much larger/longer tank :thumbs: .
 
I keep my RTBS with cichlids, its a very good combination.
 
I keep my RTBS with cichlids, its a very good combination.

LTNS, Garbage. :)

What cichlids?

Its been awhile, good to see ya!:) Still have the same cast of characters

Black Shark ( he is an absolute beast now)
Red Devil
Red Tail Black Shark
Jack Dempsey
Electric yellow cichlid
Electric Blue Cichlid
Green Severum
Cobalt Blue cichlid
Jewel cichlid
Leparinus
CAE
 

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