New RedTail Shark

[Riso-chan]

I went to petsmart yesterday to get a battery powered aeration device incase the power goes out during the hurricane, and ended up getting a little redtail there. No one in their tank looked to be sick, all fairly healthy, except for the fact the one shark(the darkest colored one) was bullying all the others. He/she's just a baby, 2 inches at most, I made sure he wasn't the most agressive in the tank there, his temprament seems somewhere in the midline of agressive and docile. Light colored at first, when I brought him home and finally released him in the tank, he darkened up some. I even bought a little cave for him too, but I haven't even put it in the tank yet. He has one rocky cave in there until then, boy did he like that. He gets along fine with everyone, no real bouts yet, very curious and beautiful. He only has to look in the direction of the swordtails fo them to scoot off his turf. I think I've decided to call him, "Triton". I'll have to think of other names for the swordtails too.

 

[Riso-chan]

A day or two has gone by, and everyone's still happy. The shark actually likes to clean off the debris on the broad leaves of the anubias. His little mouth is constantly going 100 mph! Last night, I observed him sleeping in his little cave, just laying still on the gravel bed. Very intrigueing to watch, he can also swim super fast and turn on a dime. NTW, does anyone know how to tell male from female in redtail sharks?~Angela

 

[congealedmeat]

I had a redtail shark for 2+ years and it was quite docile at first(although I did make the mistake of buying 2 of them). However as it got larger(6 inches) it got quite aggresive towards all of it's tankmates it had a hope in bothering(ie not plecos).

I would compare this fishes behaviour to a small dog that herds cows. At least that's what it looked like in my tank with cory cats. They can also even live with cichlids, as the second shark I'd bought I gave to my brother and he had it with malawi cichlids. They didn't go near it, fearing the headbutting and ramming.

I'd recommend keeping these guys with small fish like tetras and bottom feeders that can get away easily, or that are big enough the shark will be afraid to attack them.
Good luck with your fish!