How about a red tailed shark?

[sbland26]

I have a 20 gallon tank with 5 neon tetras, 2 fancy guppies, 1 blue guarami, and 1 dwarf guarami. I have a cave, a piece of driftwood and multiple live plants. I'm looking to get a possible bottom feeder but what I really want is a red tailed shark. What do you guys think? I feel the answers are going to be "tank to small" and "shark to aggressive." Give me your opinions and some past experiences would be great! Thanks!

 

[Rivercats]

You actually answered your own question... lol. The real issue is that tank is just way too small. I haven't kept one since the 90's and I didn't like the aggression.

 

[Cynic]

No, way too small tank.

 

[Lt.]

You actually answered your own question... lol. The real issue is that tank is just way too small. I haven't kept one since the 90's and I didn't like the aggression.

Agreed.

 

[Fredje]

In my experience as long as the red tail black shark has enough bottom space in the tank and the bottom to himself (no catfish/loaches) he will not be too aggressive to other fish, except somewhat at feeding time (but not problematic) and the occasional short chase when a fish happens to swim into one of the lairs the shark is in.
Mine mostly just sniffs about.

In the picture (47G tank) you can see a few of my neons casually swimming near the shark, if they felt threatened they would all school together to appear bigger.

I think the risk with a 20G tank would be that chases would happen a lot more often and also take longer, as your fish can't go very far to escape. You would have to think carefully about a good layout for your tank with enough hiding space (rock decorations, plants, etc. help but that also takes away bottom swimming space) and also be lucky to get a shark that's not too aggressive by character.
I think it would be difficult to make it work, but not impossible.

 

[Aqualady40]

You actually answered your own question... lol. The real issue is that tank is just way too small. I haven't kept one since the 90's and I didn't like the aggression.

+1 agree....I have a rts and she loves to patrol all over the tank. She has 7 tiger barbs, 3 gourami's, and 1 rubberlip pleco as tankmates in a 40b.....so she is the only true bottom fish although pleco has a favorite spot which is the bottom middle of tank cave...she had been semi aggressive but her tankmates did not run so now all get along so well the rts tries to stop the Tb's from liplocking when they are about to mate.....she thinks they are fighting......lol...its neat to see that

 

[james77]

I tried a red tail when I had my 20 gallon. It was Ok when it was real small. Once it got bigger it became I terror. Had to give it away.

 

[Fishy Smell]

For a while, i wanted something cool for the bottom of my tanks. I always loved the RTBS, and so i thought as they were inexpensive i would risk it it in a 210 litre with cichlids, tetras, corys, platies and so on. Everything was good for about a week, but then it just turned on all my platies, and since they give such nice colour to my tank, the shark had to go. I'd considered various alternatives since, including hopolo cats, picto cats and flying fox but all sounded a bit risky. In the end, i remortaged the house (joke) and started getting into the L number plecos. They are awesome, but not cheap! My favourite of the 4 i bought (2 per tank) is the Leopard Frog Pleco. I reckon you could just about get away with that in a 20g, as long as you put plenty of bogwood in, and keep it to the one pleco. You need one that stays around or under 5", the flash pleco is also awesome, i have one of those too.

 

[Fishstuff45]

A red finned shark is a lot less aggressive and just as cool looking. You might be able to get one of those but I don't know if you can keep one in a tank that size.

 

[Rivercats]

In my experience as long as the red tail black shark has enough bottom space in the tank and the bottom to himself (no catfish/loaches) he will not be too aggressive to other fish, except somewhat at feeding time (but not problematic) and the occasional short chase when a fish happens to swim into one of the lairs the shark is in.
Mine mostly just sniffs about.

In the picture (47G tank) you can see a few of my neons casually swimming near the shark, if they felt threatened they would all school together to appear bigger.

I think the risk with a 20G tank would be that chases would happen a lot more often and also take longer, as your fish can't go very far to escape. You would have to think carefully about a good layout for your tank with enough hiding space (rock decorations, plants, etc. help but that also takes away bottom swimming space) and also be lucky to get a shark that's not too aggressive by character.
I think it would be difficult to make it work, but not impossible.

One thing tho about your tank is it's large and you appear to have a very low number of fish, which IMO is what helps make a RTS less aggressive. Nice set up BTW.