need a bit of help

A

ashes2ash

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Jul 19, 2004
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My uncle gave me a 30 gallon long fish tank because he was decorating for Christmas and didn't want to work around the tank any longer. I had been wanting a tank for a long time so I'm very excited! He only has two fish inside the tank at the moment: a red tailed shark about 4 inches in length and a goldfish. The goldfish really concerns me as it looks like his scales are coming off. Some area's on him he looks like he has no scales. Is this a problem?

Anyways, my uncle and aunt said the red tailed shark is mean and chased a lot of fish they had in the tank. I want to start buying some fish but I'm concerned about what kind to buy. I really love tetra's, so my question is, will tetra's and a red tailed shark get along? If not, what kind of fish would get along with him? I don't want to spend money on fish and have my shark torture them to death.

Thanks
 
dont know a lot about goldfish, so i'll leave that to someone else.

i don't see any problem with tetras and your shark. anything that lives in the upper waters shouldn't pose a threat. they can be ornery and chase off the tetras every once and a while, but no real threat.

stay away from bottom dwellers, mostly.

give it a cave or something, and it will probably hang out there most times. they tend to be territorial and will drive off fish that come it. its when you have multiple fish competing for the same area/level of the tank when problems occur.

hope this helps.
 
I dont know a lot about goldies, but they are not tropical fish and dont do well at the levels of heat needed for the shark or tetras. Im not sure what is wrong with it but it deffinatly has something wrong with it.
 
one more thing, make sure when you add the tetras, add at least six. the shark wont be able to fixate on a single one, and things should be ok.
 
Regardless of the temperature incompatibility you have between the two species you already have, I'd think you're fully stocked, if not overstocked, the way you are. That goldfish alone requires most of the volume of your tank to be healthy.

What are your husbandry practices? (frequency and amount of water changes, how you treat your replacement water, etc.) What kind of filtration do you have. Have you tested your nitrate levels? What temperature do you maintain the tank?
 
Pretender is correct. The goldfish needs 30 gallons on its own.

Before you even think of fish, you really need to test that water. Scales coming off is not a good sign. It could be water quality, which is highly probable.

Roan
 
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