irr. shark + loaches = BAD!!!

[oscar83]

So the story is... i had a 6" irridescent shark in 75 gallon tank for almost a year. then for some unknown reason one of my JD's started beating up on him really really really bad. so then i put the shark in my 55 gallon tank with less aggresive fish like soem silver dollars, a giant gourami, a leporinus fasciauts, a few parrot cichlids, and some clown loaches. everything was fine for a few weeks. then last week when i did my weekly water chance and gravel siphon i noticed a skeleot in there with a redish looking tail and thought nothing of it (thinking that it might have been just a fish from when i first cycled the tank). then the other day when i was looking at my 55 i saw another skeleton with a red tail and realized that it might be one of my clown loaches. i started out w/ 4 clown loaches and tonight when i went o feed them i only saw 1 loach. then tonight my girlfried called me and told me that my irridescent shark had the last loach in his mouth... so the one that has been murdering my clown loaches is the irridescent shark.... DO NOT MIX THESE TWO SPECIES!!!!!!!!

 

[ashdavid]

I dont want to be to tell you this but do you have any idea how big an irridescent shark is? you will need a least 250g plus for it. Plus you have a giant gourami in a 55g!!!!!??? Plus you had 4 clown loaches that grow to over 12 inches in a 55g??? I hope they were all pretty small and you were going to transfer all them into your 250g tank that you have cycling that you have not mentioned yet. Of coarse you can't mix these two speices, in a tank that size and with those fish nothing will live in harmony!!

 

[daveedka]

Irredescent sharks like any large catfish or similar species will take advantage of available food even if they aren't a true hard core predator. If you put a fish in a tank with other fish it can swallow, it generally will. I mean lets face it Mollies, and swortails do the same thing. There really are only a handful of fish that won't eat other fish. Aside from that Ashdavid Is dead on. Irredescents need huge tanks, and so does just about everything else you mention. In an overstocked environment, nothing lives in harmony. My guppies even fight when the tank gets crowded.
Dave

 

[pbecot01]

Seems even wierder to me that you could find a fish skeleton and not immediately look to see what it came from. I may have lost my fair share of fish in the beginning... but when they died I at least noticed.

 

[oscar83]

yes i know how large irridescent sharks get and i will be inheriting a 350 gal from my uncle in a few months, hopefully sooner. but anyway the fiasco is over. this morning my shark at the last loach and then tonight when i came home my shark had died. im guessin from food poisoning, heh. well its over and done with, sucks to lose that guy tho cuz he was really cool.