Worried about my red tail shark..

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Hi!!
I've been keepin tropical fish for a few years now about 5 i'd say!
I know you shouldn't have 2 red tailed sharks together, but i have had
a couple together, the oldest is about 2 1/2 years old, he/she? picked off the other shark over some time, as they kinda peck at the others and nibble them til lthey loose health, scales and finally go pink under neath and swell up and die!
Well that's what i think was the end result for my fish.

I stil lhave the big guy/girl?
Saw a black tail shark the other day and couldn't resist :rolleyes:
Well i had to seperate the big red as he's pulling the black tail apart, fins and all.
In the last few days i noticed the front of my red tails face, around his/her mouth,
It's all gone pink and even more tonite, is he horny? or what lol just curious,
Don't want him to get sick n drop off, nice fish.
I also got 2 african clawed frogs the other day, one off em is acting strange,
Gliding around as they do, but this guy is falling to the end of his tank and turning on his back, is the tank too deep maybe? its 3 feet by 1 foot
Seems to have trouble comming to the top.
If i put him in a net near the top he seems better, hanging about.
I read they like guppies too :blink:

Well this is my first post here,

I'd like to sell tropical fish and critters.

thansk later
 
howdy and welcome to the forums.

I must say, if the RTB shark killed before, why put anything back in? stange.... :/

But i dont really know why he is pink around the face. I dont think he would be Horny either. lol
 
Hi an thanks,
I dunno it don't look healthy,
and the frog is barely movin, i put him in shallow water but he keeps moving back into the water where he just floats :huh:
 
RTBS will not tolerate any other sharks or fish similar to themselves, especially their own species. I honestly don't know how they breed them, I've even seen them attack Bala sharks twice thier size. Great fish but don't keep more than 1 of them.
 
Seems you couldnt learn from your mistakes at all, a shame after you have been keeping fish for a while.

I think you should do the right thing and take the new RTB Shark back, and re-do the tank from scratch. This should help.

Ben
 
Ok thanks for your kind words :p

I was kinda hoping on my uncle relizing cold water fish are boring and buy himself a heater, then i'd give him a shark, and my father won't fix his cold water tank and get a heater, so thats his loss, he could have the other one, id keep the big red tail.
Shame they can't get along, yeh i had a bala before, think he was hassled aswell.

What you mean by start from scratch? all my other fishies get along, cept for the two sissor tails, which i got for free bout a year ago, and didnt know what they were until lthe other day when i saw them in a tank in a pet store...
they kinda put on confrontations agenst each other but it just looks like a neat darting dance at eachothers side of the tank, theyre allright.
So i dont need to start from scratch (unless i make a new tank)
just keep one shark.

And the frog is gone, the other frog is lookin healthy, so did the other fella.

It's just trial and error with my fish sometimes, i kinda see them and buy.
Once i saw a yellow puffer with black dots, he had a cartoon face, very cool, so i bought him, he didnt last, i read on the net that they needed some amount of salt in the water, which i didnt have. And same for the cat sharks i think.

I dont buy fish to have them torment each other to death. 99% of them live well.
 
I'd suggest you research your fish BEFORE going out and impulsively buying them... You wouldn't go out and, seeing an ocapi or a margay, buy it just because you like the look of it and put it in a 2 x 2 cage with impulsively bought marmosets and lemurs would you? Fish are alive you know.
 
Mate, thats wrong. I dont like to flame, like in my earlier post i was nice about it, but buying fish cause you like the look of them is bad, research is fun, educational, and you get much more from your choices of fish. I hope you take this in. :nod: Its not fare on the fish just too say, "I like you, your coming with me" and just drop them in a tank.

As far as starting again, na, i dont think you need too, just get rid of your RTBS like weve discussed. :thumbs:

Benny
 
Yep workin on that,
The 2 sharkes haven't hastled each other since i moved them,
and the black shark is doin very well in the 3 foot tank.
When i mentioned i bought because i liked the look of them,
I saw them i ndisplay tanks, not knowing alot about them when buying.
Wish they'd hurry up n get me my dwarf frogs.

BTW.. those Cichlids look pretty in the store lol joke!
But i might set up a tank for them especially, their colors and black spiky fins would loo kcool i na corel base tank with some live plantation?
Me african clawed frog is doin great also and all the other species!
 
ive read in places that you need to keep either one red tail shark or a group of 5 to 6. if there are just 2 the bigger one makes the other miserable but if there are 5 or 6 the picking on each other gets divided and relieves stress from the smaller sharks. I have one red tail and he does just fine occasionally chasing the platies.
 
an african clawed frog will eat ANYTHING he can fit in his mouth. ACFs will even try to eat each other if there's a size difference!

please don't just buy fish and throw them in a tank, especially with a known killer. a single google search would have told you that your RTShark would have attacked any other similar-looking fish, even if you couldn't have figured that out from experience.

also it is highly irresponsible to buy fish for someone else without them requesting you to do so. would you buy a dog you couldn't really keep? the fact that your uncle and father have coldwater setups indicates one of two things:
(1) they are keeping coldwater fish and therefore would have to completely redo their tanks to take in your unwanted shark
(2) they are keeping tropical fish in inappropriate conditions and therefore would not make good homes for the shark
it was completely unreasonable for you to have tried to pawn off the shark to either of them.

i strongly encourage you to do research before purchasing any additional fish. from the sound of it, you don't have 99% survival rate. i would imagine you don't even have a 50% rate. if you have any questions at all regarding your next purchase, please ask them here before you buy!!
 
I'd say i have a 90% survival rate actually, i know, you're surprised ;)
If you saw them you'd know i look after what i have,
Might set up a few other tanks eventualy.
I had 2 guppies a while back they had all together about 80 babies.
Read that the babies grow quick, well mine didnt.
If i could breed enough, the pet store would take them from me.
I like unusual fish i.e. sharks, sail fin plecs, beta, neons are nice, sisor tails, and a few others with the addition of red claw crabs and some frogs from africa, they all look very healthy and happy.
If i could make a living from something like this that would be great, the store near us dont know as much as i'v foudn out from just goin online.
I've messed around with a few fish just not having the knowelege, even considered keeping beta and takin bets on em like they do in china, but im not that crule, i like animals.
I'm gonna start building 4 foot tanks sooon, might line the wall in my parents old garrage, so if anybody wants to advise me on where i could purchase in larger quantities, where to buy and transport etc.
I think they dont keep the tanks very good at the store near by, i could easily set up tanks and have them spotless compaired the pet store, would be a great hobbie and business.
I would be intrested in having group of sharks, but as you said above,
They'd still hastle eachother but less stress on one fish.
I read somewhere to breed red tails, you'd have to put a group of them together, how would you tell them apart though? someone knows and breeds them successfully?


And the only difference i've noticed between my tank and my fathers tank is the tropical flake food, my heater and a few nice plants. his is undergravle filter system's the same as mine.
I dont use fancy kits to test the water, i bring in a sample to the store every few weeks.
 

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