Rainbow Shark harassing Platty - What to do??

M

matnjo

AC Members
Feb 24, 2011
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Our 3" rainbow shark is frequently following the male platty around the tank and appears to be nipping at him but it looks more like he is trying to clean the platty. Is this normal? And what is the shark doing??:confused:
 
What size is the tank?
 
Well what size tank do you have? I hope you know rainbow sharks are territorial and semi aggressive. Platy's are not good tank mates for them. Also rainbow sharks should be in a minimum of 55g. Anything less and you'll have territory issues as well as jumping out of the tank issues.
 
His tank is 10 gallons. He posted earlier about it.

The shark is being territorial, and eventually the platy will not survive his continued attention. The tank is just too small for the stock that you've got.
 
rainbowcharmer said:
His tank is 10 gallons. He posted earlier about it.

The shark is being territorial, and eventually the platy will not survive his continued attention. The tank is just too small for the stock that you've got.
Click to expand...

Going to have to agree with this one.
 
Thank you guys for the info and for the patience. Man, I feel like I've set my sons tank up for failure. Good news is we can return the shark and stick with plattys, mollies, or guppies.
 
I would also return the molly and just keep platy and guppy. Molly poop A LOT. They also get pretty big, borderline big for a 10g. With platy's and guppies you should be fine just prepare for a lot of poop and babies :$
 
I have an awesome guppy setup (4 guppies - 3 female, 1 male and 2 african dwarf frogs). Something like that would be much more suitable (and fun) for your son. You'll have the opportunity to see the lifecycle as well, since guppies (and platies/mollies for that matter) are livebearers and breed under nearly any circumstance.

My only other concern right now is the cycle process which often claims the lives of the fish going through it. On the newbie forum, there's a great sticky at the top of the page for understanding the cycle process. It's really not that complicated, but takes some patience. Good luck and I hope you can get everything sorted out so you can really enjoy the fish-keeping hobby.
 
The shark is gone and the male platty is much more relaxed. My sons tank is a 14 gal and my daughters is a 10 gal. My daughter's tank, which we will stock with much more thought, includes two platty's and two albino corys. That's it for now. My son's 14 gal tank now has 2 albino corys, 1 platty, 1 bamboo shrimp, and 1 pictus. The pictus plays well with the corys but will nudge them out of the way if the corys get too close to his rock. He has never tried to nip or eat them.

Thanks again guys! Great forum!!
 
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