Red Tail Shark

[Matina]

I have a 55 gal tank. I have a red tail shark that I've had for about 6 months. It is the same size now as it was when I bought it. It swims, eats, acts normal. My Mother-in-law is of the persuasion that it's a male because it's so small...from everything I've learned in research the male is generally smaller than a female, but not THAT much smaller. I talked to a friend who knows more about fish than I do and she said that it's possible that the fish was kept in a tank that was way to small for it and therefore it's growth was stunted. Can someone help shed some light on this issue for me please? Thanks.

 

[RackinRocky]

Fish do get stunted if kept in too small of a tank. I've seen baby fish that were in 10 gallon tanks for about 4 months, and they never reached normal adult size. So that could be the problem, or maybe yours is just naturally small due to genetics.