Red Fin Shark with Cichlids?

S

souldecay

AC Members
Sep 22, 2004
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OK I have 2 Red Fin sharks. Or otherwise known as Rainbow sharks. Currently they are in a 10 gallon tank with some tetras, and a platy, and some other fish.

Recently the larger darker one has been rather sluggish and has begun to hide in the decorations a lot. And not eat as much. Which made me confused.. Since all it did before was chase the other one around the tank and gobbled up all the food.

I looked it up online and it says it grows to 6 inches and needs to be in at least a 30 gallon tank.

I now have a 55 gallon tank with a Green Terror Cichlid, a Firemouth Cichlid, and a Tiger Oscar.

I was just curious if I should switch the 2, or 1, over to the 55 gallon tank with the Cichlids. I read they are somewhat compatible but the dude at the fish store told me not to put anything under 8 inches with them.

I dont want to just put them in there and have my cichlids kill my fish which I have had a while now... I am still relatively new to fishkeeping so if anyone has any suggestions on what to do, let me know. All help would be gladly appreciated.

EDIT: Also, I just got these Cichlids in the tank today, so they havent really developed territory yet and they are still relatively small. Not like they are giant fully grown cichlids...
 
Well I have had a 3 inch red tailed shark, slightly different I know, in with an oscar, Sev and Blue acara and they all ignored him completly. So Ive never had any problems. I think most sharks are a form of cat fish anyway so not really bothered by cichlids
 
Yea, size is key. If the shark is as big as the cichlids or bigger he should be fine. especially if the others havent quite established a "spot" yet. I too have kept a red-tail w/ cichlids (frontosa) in the past. And if he isn't welcome, you can move him back.
 
Yeah, right now they are bigger. But they wont be forever.. Maybe I'll move em around later on.. thanks for the help.
 
I keep rainbow sharks, red-tailed sharks, and bala sharks in each of my cichlid tanks. Not all together obviously,but one or the other in each tank.
 
I first saw this done at a lfs and thought that it might be pretty cool to add one to my tank as well. Bad part was that he was just a hair smaller than the cichlids in the tank and about a week later he was missing. Didn't jump out and I took everything out of the tank to find him. He was gone. Eaten I guess, but I did find a baby colbalt zebra. Win some, lose some I guess.
 
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