Best fish to go with a Redtail

[lreilly]

Ok I need advice once again. For a 29gal octagon tank. It houses one redtailed shark and one little tetra. Now I know that the redtail can be aggressive and can not. Now what is the fish least likely to have a problem with him and will use the upper part of the tank. Now the water is pretty darn hard so Angel and such are out. Any thoughts on the very best fish to have the least foreseen problems.

 

[Atlarge]

Gourami? And get more tetras, one is never enough.

 

[lreilly]

I am going to get the Gourami for one of the tanks at the office all ready. So I thought that I would do some thing else in this one. The poor little tetra lost his friend a long time ago, I think he needs a friend too.

 

[webmoose]

Gourami in this one and Rainbows in the other....

 

[lreilly]

I was thinking Rainbows. They will be on the top of the list that I present.

 

[ScottS]

I like the idea of Rainbows or Gourami

 

[Atlarge]

People underestimate the look of 10-15 tetras in a tank. Depending on what type you have and how big they get, I would just get 9-12 more tetras.

 

[andra]

red tails hate all black fish and will nip the fins of any fish with a long flowing tail. Also they will atack their own kind. I've had bala sharks and iridecent sharks go well with them but as for a fish that stays at the top I had a school of rummy nose tetras that suddenly diapeared without a trace( but to be fair to the redtail I think it was my 5" clown knife that ate them) and right now I have a 4" redtail living quite peacefully with some giant danios. Also my redtail has never bothered my corys but they stay on the bottom.

 

[glasstapper]

my red tail is in a 55, with a green sevrum a gold severum, a firemouth, pair of salvini's, no problems

 

[patryuji]

Stay away from any "sharklike" fish of similar size and shape. I didn't have a chance to test out color though.

I had one which was fine with my cories. As soon as I put SAEs in the tank it became aggressive (mostly towards the SAEs).

 

[lreilly]

Thanks for all the experience. So nothing black or shark like. Avoid long fins. I can handle finding that.

 

[lreilly]

Boeseman's Rainbows. She really likes the way thoughs look. They should work right.

 

[lreilly]

Oh, I meant to ask how many would be best together.

 

[webmoose]

They like to be in schools of 6+ but I wouldn't jam that many into a 29 gallon. I am of the opinon you should have odd numbers (having said that I don't always follow that rule.)

Maybe start with 3?

 

[lreilly]

Six would be too many. I really like the idea of three. I am going to call and order them right now. Thank you so much for all of your help. I really appreciate the help, I feel so much better having first hand advice other than just my books to rely on. Thank you so much.

 

[AlonelyCody]

I have a red tail and he has made the rounds to all my tanks. He in now in a 10 with a few guppys. My BGK and red tail would fight every time the the BGK would come out of his home. Well i should say the red tail started fighting with him. from what i have found out from experance red tails go well with cichlids. the only reson i moved him out was i swaped the gravel with cichlid sand. and the Ph was to high for the red tail his front half of his body turned white...as soon as i put him in a differant tank he turned black again. He also has gotten alone with my tiger barbs and both my gourami's and even my tire track eel. i would say No to gold barbs, bala sharks, black finned sharks, i know that is why i have losed 2 of them, my red tail would not leave them alone. even when one of the black fins was twice his size. Oh and no BGK. this is from my personal experance