I have a rainbow shark, tiger barbs, rosy barbs, german blue rams, a bala shark, and a peacock eel in a 55 gallon tank. My rainbow shark got along with everyone until about a week ago when he started picking on everyone. He bit the nose off one of my rosy barbs. What do I do?
2007-01-09 03:03:54 · 9 answers · asked by lostsoulstav 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
I have a rainbow shark, tiger barbs, rosy barbs, a bala, a angelfish, a peacock eel and blue rams in a 55 gallon. He only picks on my barbs which are supposed to be semi-aggressive too but they are sweet as pie. He's always been nice until about a week ago when I added three more barbs to make their schools a little bigger.
2007-01-09 04:00:27 · update #1
Your tank needs a little work; some of the fish you mentioned do not belong together or in a 55 gallon tank.
Some are fine, but the german blue rams will have a hard time there. They are sensitive and delicate, and keeping them with barbs and sharks may result in their death. They would be classified are docile community fish whereas the others are semi-aggressive.
Bala sharks are big fish and do not belong in anything less than 125 gallons - they also need to be in schools of at least 4 bala sharks to be happy.
Undue aggression in often caused by this type of situation. Rainbow sharks need their own territory and will not tolerate intrusion upon it by others. Community fish don't know this, they venture in and are attacked. Sounds like your rainbow shark is getting TOO possessive of his territory. Redecorate your tank. Move the stuff around - erase the territories each fish has created and wipe the slate.
I think you could also need a better balance of attitude / size without the german blue rams, and the bala shark must be moved to a larger school in a bigger tank.
Once you cut down on the fish and erase the territories, the rainbow shark should chill out.
2007-01-09 03:17:51 · answer #1 · answered by Zoe 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Rainbow sharks are very aggressive fish. The only thing you can do is put the shark in its own tank or take it back to the fish store
2007-01-09 13:19:12 · answer #2 · answered by fish guy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would seperate them. and after a while watch the tiger barbs. the love to pester the other fish. but either seperate the rainbow shark or trade him in. i would geta few more balas if i were you.
2007-01-09 12:43:07 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your tank may be set up wrong, Rainbow sharks get along well with catfish, rasbora's, Mollies, tetras, gouramis, barbs, angle fish
This fish can become aggressive with other, smaller fish in your tank that invade its territory. They will fight with the Red Tail Shark. Provide plenty of hiding places (caves, rocks and plants)
Just be sure you have pleanty of hiding places. If this does not work after about 3 days, you may want to isolate him for a while.
www.fishlore.com/profiles_rainbow_shark.htm
2007-01-09 11:33:10 · answer #4 · answered by danielle Z 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
get rid of the rainbow shark or continue to feed them with neighbour(other fish)
2007-01-09 20:42:07 · answer #5 · answered by Cher c 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Since he is being aggressive I would either put him in his own tank with others of his kind or trade him to a pet store for money or store credit!
2007-01-09 11:27:29 · answer #6 · answered by angelmwilson 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
These fish are territorial and commonly aggressive. Their aggression varies from situation from situation, but you've obviously got a nastier one. You are best to remove him and either try again and hope for a mellower one, or try a less aggressive fish altogether.
2007-01-09 11:11:51 · answer #7 · answered by Ghapy 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Rainbow sharks need their own territory.
Add some caves and plants (or more caves and plants) so he can develop his own territory.
2007-01-09 11:41:07 · answer #8 · answered by allyalexmch 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
We traded ours in for store credit... Sadly he killed 2 anegls and a whole school of cardinals first
2007-01-09 12:49:38 · answer #9 · answered by tjlancer 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋