Ok! Today I got the 3 Salmontail Sharks! They are alone in my tank and will quickly need to upgrade soon. But from my trip, I loaded the manager with question and I got some rather disturbing answers. Yet intriguing!
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Eelzor - How big can they grow?
Manager - Up to 1.8 meters. (I was shocked) They swim in the Brisbane river and look just like sharks.
Eelzor - How fast can I expect them to grow on a varied dit of flakes, algae wafers, bloodworms and the like?
Manager - They are extremely fast growing on whatever diet you give them and within 6 months can get 12 inches.
Eelzor - What tankmates can you recommend?
Manager - Because of this fish's monsterous size, I would only recommend oscars to go with them as they are the only fish capable of catching up with the growth speed of the Salmontail Catfish Shark. But even then, the oscar should be removed because the catfish will still out grow them. Although the oscar can still stay with them for a long period of time.
Eelzor - I there anything I should be careful of or weary about?
Manager - Yes, the Salmontails have a shark "Pin-Like" top fin that is used as a defense mechanism that can hurt if it does happen to poke you, however it is rarely used a lot and shouldn't be much of a worry. And also, when netting them up it can get caught in the net so you should be careful there.
Eelzor - What about concerning temparment?
Manager - When young they are very peaceful and don't harm other fish much, but when they are adult size, perhaps 12 inches or more, it depends on the diet, just feeding them simple food like flakes and wafers will keep them less aggressive, but feeding them feeder fish in a shark-only tank can make them very aggressive and eventually anyfish of any size added will be considered food therefore no fish can live in such a tank.
Eelzor - Not even me?
Manager - [Laughs] Well, the risk is always there!
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Well I hope you got a lot of info out of that talk I did today with the manager, and I still recommend you to get them Wilsta! They would make an excellent addition to your tank, at least for the first couple of years! I also wanted to warn you that it takes years for the shark to reach the 1.8 meter mark, and even I will not be able to keep them for that long so I asked if I could trade it in if it does become too big, and it was fine. Good luck Wilsta! I await your traumatized reply!