Red Tailed Shark

[halfbloodprincess]

What would be good tank mates for a red tailed shark in a 30 gallon tank?

 

[n3ont3tra]

I would say maybe some Tiger Barbs, a tank like that would be awesome, but overstocked. There's really nothing else you could put in there without it being overstocked, though, RTS need the 30g. If you really want something, I would say a loach of some sort, not a social type though, because you don't have room for groups. Anything that gets above 5 inches is too big. You could also have a ram or a pair of rams.
But really, if you add any other fish, besides the RTS, it'll be overstocked.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

ok here is something I have been thinking about.

5 tiger barbs
5 yoyo loaches
1 red tailed shark
1 rubber nose pleco

I was wondering what I could add to that if I could add anything.

 

[Aprilia997]

That would work or you could have two yoyo loaches and three or four rosey barbs. At the full size of the fish the tank would be overcrowded but rts do not grow particularly fast and tiger barbs have a shorter life span than the rosey barbs although not much shorter.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Never kept RTS with tiger barbs, however i have kept this type of shark very successfully with neon tetras. On the other hand though, if you keep tiger barbs and RTS, this will seriously limit what sort of fish you can have in the tank.
The tank would also be semi-agressive; tiger barbs often have enough difficulties having to co-exist which each other peacefully let alone other territorial fish- a group of 5 tigers would probably not work very well, usually a minimum of 8 is advised to help disperse agression between them.
But the most important thing is that although a 30gal is the advised minimum size tank for both an RTS and tiger barbs, the dimensions of the tank are very important and it should be at least 3ft long and 1ft wide.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

I could do 6 neon tetras instead of the tiger barbs. And it is three feet long and 1 foot wide.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I could do 6 neon tetras instead of the tiger barbs. And it is three feet long and 1 foot wide.

A group of neon tetras would also certainly leave a lot more stocking space to go around in the tank than having 5 tiger barbs would, and the overal agression of the tank would be much reduced with the neons instead of tiger barbss .

 

[halfbloodprincess]

Yeah. So now that I have changed it to this...

6 neon tetras
1 red tailed shark
1 rubber nose pleco

What can I add to that?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah. So now that I have changed it to this...

6 neon tetras
1 red tailed shark
1 rubber nose pleco

What can I add to that?

You have a lot of space to go around, how about a group of 3-4 corys (what sort of substrate do you have in the tank?) or khuli loaches? Some cherry, ghost or amano shrimp would also go well or a small shoal of danios, what sorts of fish would you like to add in general?

 

[halfbloodprincess]

Yeah a school of corys would be nice. I am looking for fish that would go good with a rtbs. Since they are agressive I want fish that are good with them. I have it in my community tank at this moment but I will be transfurring it to the 30 gallon when it is cycled. The substate is sand. So if u can suggest any fish that could possibly go with them than that would be good.

What about a elephant nose fish?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah a school of corys would be nice. I am looking for fish that would go good with a rtbs. Since they are agressive I want fish that are good with them. I have it in my community tank at this moment but I will be transfurring it to the 30 gallon when it is cycled. The substate is sand. So if u can suggest any fish that could possibly go with them than that would be good.

What about a elephant nose fish?

Elephant nose fish are exceptionally difficult to look after in aquariums, they are best left alone. Most non-agressive fish that shoal in groups of their own kind are good with RTS, as are most bottom-dwelling fish (corys, loaches, pleco's etc).

You should basically avoid territorial fish and brightly colored ones (particularly ones with red or black colouring/markings or just very distinct colourful pattening in general, like a yellow fish with a black tail etc). You can go for livebearers like platys, guppys and swordtails, however the problem with these fish is that most do have very bright, colourful and distant markings or patterns on them which irritate RTS. RTS are not especially bright when it comes to identifying threats to their territory- they will generally go for any fish that looks similar in shape, colours or marking to RTS- thus RTS and other shark shaped fish should also never be mixed. However it is still posible to mix livebearers with RTS very successfully if you choose what colour livebearers you go for carefully .

You may also want to consider other aquarium critters like shrimp or large ornemental snails, which can make very nice additions to community aquariums. Apple snails have a particularly striking yellow/orange colouring (and grow to about the size of a golf ball), Giant Ramshorn snails also have very attractive stripes curling around their shells- there are basically heaps of all types of colourful and interesting snails to choose from though when it comes down to it.
As long as your ph is good (not too acid), your tank should make a great environment for all sorts of snails.
Snails are generally very safe when it comes to stocking, but shrimp can be a bit more tricky as there are a variety of types of shrimp, not all of which are suited to community life- the main types of shrimp are predatory shrimp (a lot of which have long arms or claws for grabbing prey with), filter/fan feeding shrimp(completely harmless), and scavenging shrimp with tiny arms and claws (most of which are omnivorous and generally harmless). Ghost, cherry and amano shrimp are becomming particularly popular primarily due to their peaceful nature and usefullness in many aquariums (for example, amano shrimp make great cleaners of many types of algae) and interesting habits/behaviour.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

Yeah a school of corys would be nice. I am looking for fish that would go good with a rtbs. Since they are agressive I want fish that are good with them. I have it in my community tank at this moment but I will be transfurring it to the 30 gallon when it is cycled. The substate is sand. So if u can suggest any fish that could possibly go with them than that would be good.

What about a elephant nose fish?

Elephant nose fish are exceptionally difficult to look after in aquariums, they are best left alone. Most non-agressive fish that shoal in groups of their own kind are good with RTS, as are most bottom-dwelling fish (corys, loaches, pleco's etc).

You should basically avoid territorial fish and brightly colored ones (particularly ones with red or black colouring/markings or just very distinct colourful pattening in general, like a yellow fish with a black tail etc). You can go for livebearers like platys, guppys and swordtails, however the problem with these fish is that most do have very bright, colourful and distant markings or patterns on them which irritate RTS. RTS are not especially bright when it comes to identifying threats to their territory- they will generally go for any fish that looks similar in shape, colours or marking to RTS- thus RTS and other shark shaped fish should also never be mixed. However it is still posible to mix livebearers with RTS very successfully if you choose what colour livebearers you go for carefully .

You may also want to consider other aquarium critters like shrimp or large ornemental snails, which can make very nice additions to community aquariums. Apple snails have a particularly striking yellow/orange colouring (and grow to about the size of a golf ball), Giant Ramshorn snails also have very attractive stripes curling around their shells- there are basically heaps of all types of colourful and interesting snails to choose from though when it comes down to it.
As long as your ph is good (not too acid), your tank should make a great environment for all sorts of snails.
Snails are generally very safe when it comes to stocking, but shrimp can be a bit more tricky as there are a variety of types of shrimp, not all of which are suited to community life- the main types of shrimp are predatory shrimp (a lot of which have long arms or claws for grabbing prey with), filter/fan feeding shrimp(completely harmless), and scavenging shrimp with tiny arms and claws (most of which are omnivorous and generally harmless). Ghost, cherry and amano shrimp are becomming particularly popular primarily due to their peaceful nature and usefullness in many aquariums (for example, amano shrimp make great cleaners of many types of algae) and interesting habits/behaviour.

I like the sound of the shrimp. So how many could I have. Let's see how bout the cherry shrimp?

Could I have rainbow fish?

What about a Bichir?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You could have a lot of cherry shrimp in your tank since they are small (1inch) and are not big waste producers, you could even have 20 if you wanted, but a group of 3-5 is probably the best as you don't want them to over run the tank. Feed them a varied diet of algae wafers and catfish pelets and they will be fine .

I think rainbow fish are sub-tropical fish (need more info on their ideal temps in tanks though), otherwise they would be fine for your tank;

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile45.html

As far as i know, they are different types of bichirs and they are more demanding/specialised to look after than your average community fish- you should do a thread in the oddballs section on these fish as they always have tons of info on them. A bichir may be posible, but really i don't know a massive amount on them past a few basic requirements on how to keep them- habitat and feeding requirements may be an issue.

 

[dizzied]

I wouldn't risk cories with an RTBS. They'll stupidly wander into the RTBS' territory and get shredded.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I wouldn't risk cories with an RTBS. They'll stupidly wander into the RTBS' territory and get shredded.

Not at all, i keep a variety of cories with my RTS and she completely ignores them. As i said, its generally only the fish that look similar in shape, colouring or markings or are generally very brightly coloured to RTS that get picked on.