Red Tail Sharks : shy fish?

[Bioworldmaker]

I have been doing my homework on RedTail Sharks and reading that they are pretty agressive fish that wil take on every other fish on the tank. "Good" I thought to myself. It will go well with my tiger barbs, who are also semi-agressive.

Strange.
The fish I got yesterday is such the opposite of that. Since it got into the tank, it is always hidding. It doesn't seem to be afraid of the other fish at all, but whenever I walk by the tank (it is on the living room) even if I am considerably far from the tank, it hides. I never get to see it, and I haven't seen it eating anything at all. What can I do to make my fish "less shy"?

Thanks
Mon

 

[powderbluetang]

they are probably stressed best thing to do is let them hide for a few days and they will be fine

 

[hockeydude15]

i had red tailed sharks and they were never hiding, although my friends would hide all of the time and they still do so i guess it has something to do w/ the type of fish you have in the tank or the #.

They will hide from a their own species (who ever is bigger) but i think you only have one shark right?

 

[flipz]

I had a red tail shark that hid for several days, and would never eat. I ended up having to give him back because he was too close to death.

But my puffer did the same thing, and after a couple days he came out and shows off more every day!

-brent

 

[Bioworldmaker]

Yes... I only have one. I would think he would be the "king of the tank" by now, but it seems he is more like a thief that nibles and hides.

 

[Endgame319]

Lots of fish hide during the first few days of being in a new tank. As soon as he figures out that you = food he will stop hiding so much.

 

[StacyRe]

i have a red finned shark which is basically the same as a red tailed shark... When i first got him, he stayed in hiding all the time... When my algae eater would invade his hiding space, he would become aggitated. After about a week or two he was more out going and less afraid.. Give him time.. he'll come around.

 

[patryuji]

I never seen my red-tail acting like an overly aggressive fish but as others have said give it time to become accustomed to the surroundings. Do the barbs harass the RTS?

My RTS only aggressively goes after other "shark-like" fish and is completely peaceful towards all others. The angelfish doesn't care for the RTS due to its large size (3-3.5" length) and outstanding colors...the RTS will cruise the tank but is often chased off by the angelfish.

 

[wilson]

i had one andfor about one to twoweeks it was really shy. It has started to come out more, but it still hides sometimes.

 

[glasstapper]

i love mine, very personable fish, he's with many south americans, and is wonderful at keeping clean what my pleco can not,, dont let the "shark" part fool you, look at his mouth? whats the most he can do ? IMO

 

[Rocket2001]

I've had my Redtailed Shark for a couple of weeks now...he was very shy at first but now he seems to have claimed his territory and while peaceful most of the time he will nudge away any fish that invades his space.

 

[grimlock3000]

One day is nothing, give the fish a week or two to get used to the tank. Many of the fish I have spent the first few days hiding or not doing much when they first get to the tank. Often, taking a fish home from a pet store is terribly stressful on the fish because so much changes. As long as it eats a little here and there, it will be fine.

 

[mitche8359]

I kept red tail sharks for years. Never saw them aggressive, nor where they in hiding.

 

[glasstapper]

mine gets his boxers bunched when his area becomes encroached on, but remember ,, he has a little mouth, so its kinda like a small dog, mostly bark

 

[spence0416]

I had a RTS that took out a few barbs from my school of 7. I thought it was normal aggression between the barbs that was slowly knocking them off. I realized it was the shark, as soon as the lights went out he would take shots at all the barbs. He was then moved to a different tank with small cichlids and has done very well with them as they are too strong for his small mouth.

This all happened in a year so it wasn't a very frequent occurence, but still you should keep your eye out for it.

 

[krap101]

he has a little mouth, so its kinda like a small dog, mostly bark

i think its very similiar to the SAE etc.

 

[Rocket2001]

Ahhhhh! My RTS had become a monster...he was so passive for the first three weeks I had him now he's attacking everything in my tank. H hates the bloodfinned tetras the most..he might be going back to the LFS if things dont change

 

[glasstapper]

here's a little update for ya on my rts, mind you, he grew up with everyone in his 55, the other day my lfs gave me 2 texas that he had approx1.5 2 in big, put em in the 55 and my rts was having non of it!! came from across the tank and just had a fit! bumbin and backing into one perch more than the other but just a little update on my passive rts. thinkin it may have to do with thier size,, next week to try and figure his behavior i'm gonna borrow a larger sevrum fron my lfs and see

 

[Bioworldmaker]

Update...

Update on my RTS:

My RTS doesn't hide as much anymore! That is pretty good, because now I get to see it swimming around more often...

However, the RTS didn't put 2 and 2 together yet (as someone posted here before) to figure out that me = food... Everytime I walk by the tank the fish looks like it's seen a ghost, and it swims as fast as it can to its little hideout...

I wonder what it has been feeding on though, since I don't see much algae around and by the time it comes out all the food is already gone (these tiger barbs are crazy little pigs!). It is alive, so it must be feeding on something! It didn't grow much though...