rainbow shark grazing on other fish

[Jim Phypers]

Hi,

We have had a rainbow shark in a 35 gallon tank for a couple of months now. He is getting about 3 inches long now, just slightly smaller than our 3 spot gourami. The last several mornings, we have seen the "sharkie" grazing on (grooming?) the gourami just like he would on the glass of the tank. He makes several passes from nose to tail tip or the other direction and the gourami just lets him for a while before darting away. Has anyone else ever seen this behavior? Is this normal for an algae eater? Will this harm gourami? ??

 

[LyndaB]

A rainbow shark is not an algae eater, he is a carnivore. Mine ate all of my zebra danios and that was in a larger tank than yours. As they mature and grow in size, so does their aggression level grow. Yours is telling you he needs a much larger tank. Having had one, I recommend nothing smaller than 75 gallons.

Are you sure this is a rainbow shark you have? They don't graze on the side of the glass.

Welcome to the forum, glad you found us.

 

[Wilkes]

I have kept algae eaters in the past and had the same problem. They can gain size very quickly and mine started to pester the other fish I had to remove it in the end.