Rainbow Shark terrorizing other shark and fish

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robingfx

Registered Member
Jan 24, 2006
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I have two rainbow sharks in my 24 gallon tank. One is slightly bigger than the other and is constantly chasing the other around, terrorizing it to exhaustion. I read somewhere online that you should get at least 6 of them to avoid this problem, but I read that too late. Now what can I do? Should I let it terrorize the other shark, or should I get rid of one of them? It chases other fish too, but they don't seem to care that much.

Appreciate any help I can get,
Robin
 

rrkss

Biology is Fun
Dec 2, 2005
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Get rid of the one being chased. The stronger/healthier one of the two is doing the chasing so you would want to keep him. Rainbow sharks need to either be alone in large groups otherwise they will try and kill each other. I have a rainbow shark alone in a tank and he only bothers other fish when they try to enter his cave or steal his food. It is cute watching this guy guard his food. Other than those two instances he leaves the fish alone except for a little chase every now and then to show them who is boss.
 
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robingfx

Registered Member
Jan 24, 2006
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The tiny fish in my tank just moves to the side when the bully shark chase them. It scares them for a second, but then they realize it's just "stupid rainy". The weaker shark allows to be chased around a few laps until he finds a hiding place. Sometimes I wish he would just fight back, but he's not feeding as well as the bully so he'll never catch up in size or strength.
 

Dangerdoll

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Aug 27, 2002
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you've got a recipe for catastrophe in that tank for as long as you keep 2 of those sharks in there. You're definitely not going to be able to keep 6 of those in a 24 gallon, it's just not big enough.... Rainbow sharks are typically intolerant of other rainbows (or other fish which resemble them) and will often pester until one or both dies.
 
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