I've had a Red Tail Black Shark and a Bala Shark living together for about 18 mos. in a 10 gal tank. They really have had lttle to do with each other until recently. I moved them into a 55 gal tank and now the RTBS likes to "rub up against" the Bala shark. Is this aggression or love? :dive2:
Red Tail Black Shark
- Thread starter Jolly Mon
- Start date
Make sure that he is rubbing and not biting...My red tailed shark would bite my rainbow shark and my flying fox...had to get rid of him.
My redtail killed my dwarf gourami this way. He would almost herd him, he would bump and rub him into the corner until he rubbed a bare spot on the fish's side. It was aggressive in my case, but not sure with yours??
The fish are in a way undersized aquarium. Redtails should be in a 30g minimum and Balas in probably a 200 or more as they're large schooling fish. The shark should be okay now butthe Bala will need rehoming and more friends. The way the shark is rubbing might be some kind of reaction to the larger space and a way of establishing territory or just panic from the unusually large space.
One of my old red tails had a period of doing this a few months after my betta joined the gang, it never did any harm though and left the betta to it after a few weeks, although they would occasionaly 'cuddle'. When the betta died, the red tail wasn't as active and just seemed to be missing the other fish. So you never know it could just be a kind of affection?