New 32 gal planted/fish

There are no waste eater fish suitable for hobby tanks, certainly not small ones. Scats are the only ones I know, and they are brackish to SW and very large and messy and consume all plants.

RTS are not catfish, as OG said, and are notoriously difficult to impossible to keep with conspecifics or even similarly shaped or colored fish.

1. Not catfish
2. Not waste eaters
3. Incompatable with conspecifics.

That is three, isn't it?
 
Just as a quick jump in, I've never had a rainbow shark jump (I've had 3), and I have some fairly open areas on the tank in places.

Luck on my part, I guess, I never would've even considered it.
 
They'll almost always 'jump' when there is something amiss with the water quality...be it ammonia, nitrite, or chlorine/chloramine poisoning.
 
Their size and potential for aggression (though I never experianced it in my lightly stocked 10gal, not cramped with only five fish) was the reason they were being moved to my larger aquarium. The water is fine, I checked, and they have never jumped before. But now that I know they do jump then I will take proper precautions the next time.

I am not about to argue that they will eat waste but that is what I was told by the people I bought them from and have been unable to find anything that has said otherwise so I am only going on the knowledge that I used for the year and a half that I had these two little guys. (they did start out very small and were about 2.5 and 3 inches when they jumped) I was told by my brother's friend and a employee at the store where I bought them that they were good fish for starting a tank, that they would stay near the bottom and that they were scavengers, as in they would eat the food that the other fish wouldn't. Now I don't feel very good that this information was not complete but that is the best I had at the time and what I went on. That and the fact that they never fought among themselves and that they seemed to always want to be close to each other. My tank, and my feeding of the fish did not kill them and neither did my water. (I checked) They were very healthy, powerful fish, they just decided to bale and I am very upset about that.

And through this thread I have realized that I have been calling them redtail sharks when they are rainbow sharks. I called them redtails because we don't get redtails where I live and therefore redtails and rainbows are referred to as the same thing. That was my mistake.

Thank you for your inpute and corrections and can someone please direct me to a proper sight about these sharks as I cannot find them. I am very willing to look into these things and I'd still like to have this kind of fish in my tanks considering that they were such sweeties for me.
 
Thank you for the sites the second one especially was helpfull, but my sharks did not display the loner behavior. Infact they swan next to each other and slept near eath other, never fighting amongst themselves. Perhaps mine were a strange case.

My ammonia in the new tank, running for 5 days now, is 0 and the nitrites are at 0.1. This matches the readings in my other two tanks.

The temperature flucuates between 24 degrees and 24.6 degrees throughout the day/night. This is less change than in my smaller tanks so it wasn't temperature that caused my fish to make a break for it. And according to the charts on the test kits (I bought new ones just in case) my ammonia and nitrite levels are fine.

Just to be safe I netted the algae eater and returned him to his former home. I have no idea what could have caused the sharks to jump other than just the fact that they had been put in strange surroundings. Oh and the pH in my water is around 7.5-7.8
 
Another update

Maybe you should have fishless cycled for a little while- or cycled with some fish like danios.
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Ok this was my dad's doing. This tank was his gift to me and he's upset that it has no fish in it yet. (he's a big baby sometimes) So we went out and picked up some zebra danios. I've read that they don't produce as much waste as other species do and I hope I wasn't fed false information again. At a buck a fish I decided I'd bend and pick up six instead ofthe ten my dad was hoping for. Actually he was hoping I'd pick up some Gorami, platies, giant dnaios, gold danios, and hatchet fish. I reminded him that I knew more about this than he did (though I for sure don't know everything) and made him back off.

My ammonia levels read 0 at the moment. Will they rise with the fish for a few days? How often do you suggest I test the water after these fish are introduced?
 
Test daily, and do water changes as needed to keep ammonia less than 1.

Just a note--having detectable nitrites is not normal. Nitrites are very toxic, and should be at 0 in a stable tank. You may want to have your test results verified, and check that the test has not expired.

Good for you one not letting your dad add a bunch of fish.
 
Danios produce as much waste as any tetra or other small bodied fish. They just tend to be very hardy and that is why they are used to cycle the tank. But make sure, as Oriongril said, to test the water every day and do water changes when you start detecting any ammonia or nitrite. This will ensure that your fish will still be able to live a nice long life. Ammonia and Nitrite poisoning is permanent as it burns the gills and leaves scare tissue.

Wait a couple of weeks and then you can add another couple of fish and do water quality checks and water changes.

Of course live plants will also help to reduce the amount of ammonia and nitrite in the tank.
 
The tests are brand new, I bought new ones just to be sure everything was alright, the nitrie in all my tanks reads less than 0.1, but a little above zero because there is some colour development. It does not match 0.1 completely. I checked the tap water here just in case but I don't get a reading (good to know). I did just do a 50% water change on my 10gal though and the reading still comes up as between 0 and 0.1. The kit however says that levels below 0.3 are safe but I should ensure that they are not rising by testing again in 24 hours (later today)

Danios produce as much waste as any tetra or other small bodied fish. They just tend to be very hardy and that is why they are used to cycle the tank
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That's it! These books are garbage..I'm returning them to the library! And I'm going to start going to the new library up the hill where the books aren't 30 years old. :mad: Thank you for correcting yet more misleading information I have been fed. I can't believe I haven't killed more fish already, I've been trusting this info for over a year.

Thanks for the help, I am extremely grateful (hate to see creatures suffer) and I'll try to rememer all this wonderful advice. If my test results change later today I'll post them. And with that, the danios are doing wonderful. I didn't really want them for my big tank. I bought them to keep my dad quiet with the plan to move them to my 10gal once it was empty, but I think they are growing on me, active little guys thats for sure
 
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