Eating habits of the Redtailed Shark

[hike13]

Ok, I'm a little confused about my redtailed shark. What and when does this guy eat? I know he's supposed to be omnivirous but I don't see him eat anything. I put in these tabs (http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22987;category_id=1805;pcid 1=2911;pcid2=) for my corys and he floats over them but I watched for 10 minutes last night and not so much as a nibble. And I also just bought some shrimp pellets for my cory's to try (and my greedy ADF ends up eating most of it) and the Redtail just nibbles a little bit and goes on his way. When he's out and about he always seems to be scavenging for food by checking all the surfaces of my tank ornaments. He must be eating something because I've had him for going on two months and he seems healthy.

On a separate note regarding redtailed sharks do they tend to hide a lot?? Mine seemed to be in self imposed solitary confinement for about two weeks. Then two days ago it was like he got sprung from jail and has been cruising around the tank day and night since then.

-Confused Newbie

[tmpadmin]

I had a red tail shark for about 9 years (when I was young - I was proud of how well I took care of it to have it live that long since the person who sold him to me said 2 years tops. But I now found out they can live up to 15 years!). From my experience feed them anything you normally feed the rest of your fish, they will find it once it makes it to the bottom. Hit Google and type in Red Tail Shark. I got a ton of hits with great information.

They do like to hide and will "protect" their territory. I never had my shark kill another fish - they just chase them away. That too is covered in many of the articles I found with Google.

On a sad note, my new tank almost got wiped out by ick. I think there was an issue with amonia or something really stressed out my fish. My new red tail shark was the last to go. :sad:

[ghinksmon]

I've found red tails to be intollerant of soft acidic waters. They won't show their striking colors, eat poorly, and dye young.

[nlmadison]

I have a large (6") Red-Finned Shark which came with the tank (29 gal) I bought this summer. I don't know how old he is. He enjoys spirulina wafers, shrimp pellets, cucumber and zucchini. I usually drop 1 piece of cuke/zucchini for the shark (attach plant weights) and clip one piece to the side of the tank. The other fish enjoy them as well. He can be "agressive" when protecting his fav foods that's why the 2 separate feeding stations. I believe he did kill two of my small (1" and 1-1/2") angelfish. In his defense, I think that the larger angelfish was already overstressed as it was new in the tank. The smaller one was fine the night before and eaten by the next morning so I'm not really sure what happened.

[LazyD]

I have 3 Red Tailed Sharks in my current fish tank, they have no problem with the food im feeding them which can be found here TetraMin Tropical Crisps (http://www.tetra-fish.com/catalog/product.aspx?id=22)

[Ripples]

Mine (bless him!) eats a lot of algae of the leaves of my plants - and occasionally pops out of hiding to have a go at the frozen 'fresh' foods too. Even more rarely he'll go for some sinking pellets - but mostly he seems to find his own bits and bobs.

Was horribly worried about him last week as he appeared to be flicking and clamping his fins - but seems better now... Poor old steve..