My German Blue Ram thinks he is a Tiger Barb!

[Sploke]

While its not something I will encourage, I kept a group of 6 tiger barbs with my angel in a 55 for about a year and a half with no problems, at which point I lost all the barbs in a tank crash.

The shark catfish is probably a Columbian shark, and they do need brackish as they get older. See profile: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile63.html

OP - original poster (you, crashlee).

I'm not sure what tank your oscar is in, I'm guessing the 100, but IMO thats not really big enough to house a full grown school of bala sharks. Are very active and get large, and really deserve the proper space.

Other than the space issues you are bound to run into, the ram should be fine in that tank for the time being. Just make sure you keep up on water changes - that is a fairly heavy bioload for a 55. I'd be doing 50% weekly, bare minimum.

 

[crashlee916]

and you think this will still happen even though i have kept these same fish together for over 6 months now? And they still have no nipped fins???

 

[crashlee916]

I'm not sure what tank your oscar is in, I'm guessing the 100, but IMO thats not really big enough to house a full grown school of bala sharks. Are very active and get large, and really deserve the proper space.

Yes my oscars are currently in a 100 gallon, and only about 5"big. We are going to be upgrading very soon to at least 150g.. and then probably up to 240... and then im sure bigger!!! My man is absolutely obsessed over fish and keeps wanting a bigger and bigger tank....... the bala shark is only about 3 inches right now, so trust me it will be a long time before i even start thinking about putting them with our means. We will be way passed 100 gallons by then.

 

[gilleyb]

Well I have a friend who has tiger barbs and angels living quite happily together for over a year. I know it goes against the recognised rules but those rules don't apply 100% of the time.
As for the balas and pleco, they will have to be moved to a bigger tank but you already knew that.
It's easy to think that everyone on here is out to put you down and tell you what you're doing wrong. I thought the same when I first got on here a few months back but I've learned that 99% of people who answer your q's on here have only the best interest of your fish at heart and most have the knowledge and experience to back up the advice.
Bye now.

 

[crashlee916]

The shark catfish is probably a Columbian shark, and they do need brackish as they get older. See profile: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile63.html

Your right!!! it is a columbian shark!!!! So now im curious, what should i do with him when he needs brackish water? And do you know when he starts to need it? ive tried to have a 10g brack tank with a green puffer and i totally failed And honestly i dont want to go out of my way for this one fish....:help:

 

[Riiz]

Back on topic, I had a lone German Blue ram that was buddies with my lone Clown loach. And after they were seperated, he know spends his time with a trio of Honey Gourami.

 

[crashlee916]

Back on topic, I had a lone German Blue ram that was buddies with my lone Clown loach. And after they were seperated, he know spends his time with a trio of Honey Gourami.

aww thats too cute... at least now i know its not totally unusual huh..

 

[Sploke]

I would say you should look at starting to up the salinity slowly around the 18-24 month old time frame. Most fish can be considered "adult" at that point. the problem is that, unless you bought him when he was basically a fry only a few days old, its going to be really hard to know how old he actually is. In any case, if you're not going to dedicate a very large brackish tank for this guy, I'd probably start looking to rehome it. There's something to be said fomr a large brackish tank though....a few columbians, an archer, a nice group of scats...but you're into the 150gal+ realm at that point.

 

[crashlee916]

hmmmm... well that just totally sucks