Are my silver sharks trying to escape??

Question

We recently added two large silver sharks to our tank to replace Nemo and Bruce who recently went belly up. They are the largest fish in the tank but they are scared of everything and we can hear them flapping out the water when the light is off. we also have a spotted gourami who is a bully, two indian gouramis, three dwarf gouramis one of which is also a bully, a fighter and a cat fish. Bruce2 and Nemo2 don't seem happy and swim about like crazy fish.Whats up?

Answer 1

You don't say how big your tank is and gouramis are territorial. They may be picking on your sharks.

When you add a new fish into an establish tank, it's a good idea to move the decorations around. This destroys the territories they've established and puts everybody on equal ground. Otherwise the new fish are "intruders" in the existing pecking order and will be bullied.

Answer 2

give them some time to settle in, they should calm down, perhaps you should keep your tank to gouramis or check the fish are community fish before you buy, we had a huge silver shark and he was pretty calm but swam constantly, lots an lots of fish are jumpers once the lights are out so thats nothing to worry about unless you have any holes under the hood of the tank lid, all in all, just give them some time, silver sharks are more swimmers than floaters ( i dont mean dead floaters!) some fish seem to stay in one spot all the time! good luck with them!!

Answer 3

silver sharks, aka bala sharks grow to 12" and really need a 6ft tank at least, and a school of of 5 or more to be comfortable and happy. i've seen several rescue balas in public aquaria in 4000 gallon tanks with full grown clown loaches...

chances are they're stressed out by a tank thats too small, you don't say how large (or small) your tank is? they're very skittish fish.

and fighters, aka bettas, shouldn't be kept with gouramis, they get munched and beat up, close relations they are and gouramis are that bit tougher than bettas.