Feeding the fishies

[JamesShall]

Well, the tank seems to have finished up cycling and I celebrated with the addition of 2 new catfish. I started with 4 tiger barbs, 2 rainbow fish, 2 red tail sharks, 1 catfish, and a blue lobster. By the end of the cycle I was left with 2 barbs, the rainbows, and one shark.

Anyway, the shark is starting to get a bit aggressive and it frequently chases the barbs around the tank whenever he sees fit. It's fun to watch! BUT, I noticed that when I drop in bine shrimp, the shark becomes king of the tank and makes EVERYTHING leave that frozen nugget alone! The catfish don't get bossed around, but they are never in the area anyway.

The frozen food sinks to the bottom where the shark barely nibbles on it and the catfish do the clean up. i end up putting a little flake in for the fish that didn't get to eat. They get to eat, but the nature of the flake going all over the tank doesn't seem very effective to me and I can see that it's going to lead to a lot of cleaning and stuff.

Any hints or does this sound familiar and it's ok to do?

BTW - thanks for suggesting 2 catfish! They cruise the tank like they are best of buddies and my daughter is loving that!

 

[QTOFFER]

Great to hear that your tank is cycled!
I hold the frozen brine shrimp and let it melt into the filter current. It disperses and that way everyone gets a shot at it. Same thing for the flake food. I don't worry much about the food going all around the tank - the catfish are very efficient scavengers. Between the cats and your gravel vac, the substrate will not get mucked up unless you are feeding by the fistful.

I'm a little concerned about the redtail's aggressiveness - I thought they were mostly mean to their own kind.

 

[LAGlocker]

If it is a redtailed black shark I think I read somewhere that they can be overly aggressive if they do not have more of their own kind to harass. Thats IIRC. I have 5 of them in one tank, and they do chase each other but leave the rest of the fish in that tank alone. But dont hold me to them being that way, just what I read lol.

 

[JamesShall]

LAGlocker - did you add all 5 at the same time? I was thinking about getting another one, but I was warned not to as the existing one may try to kill off the other one. I don't know how believable that is. The one I have has atleast doubled or tripled in size. It's not BIG yet, but it's not the itty bitty baby that the fish store has. This size would be a disadvantage to the small new one if I get it.

 

[LAGlocker]

Yeah I actually put all of them in the tank at once, along with some other smaller fish, well at that time they were smaller. For the first couple of days they chased some of my fish around, then just became more interested in each other than anything else. Like I said I personally have never had a problem with mine, but then others do. So really its all in the temperment of that fish, some act one way, some act another.

 

[puffergirl]

James, does your redtail have lots of places to hid away and call his own? I have 1 redtail shark in with 6 tiger barbs and 5 loaches and he is doing fine. Every once in awhile I notice he takes a spin around the tank chasing the barbs, usually at feeding time then he just goes back to his tube and hides. I would not suggest adding another redtail to your tank as they are aggressive toward thier own kind and since the guy you already have in there has probably established his territory by now adding another would just upset him.