Red tailed shark giving me trouble

[fishfan27]

Last Thursday I went to petco to get a red tailed black shark. I temperature acclimated properly almost to the point of overkill. then I released him into the tank making sure not to mix the water from the bag with the tank water. it has been almost a week now and I have been doing daily water changes about a quarter each day and overall babying this fish but he still looks stressed or something.

the tank has been properly cycled fishlessly. he does not have any tankmates and it is a 64 gallon tank so its not overstocking. and he looked vibrant and healthy at the pet store so I think it must be something on my end.

So do I have something on my hands or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?

 

[PB_Smith]

is it pale and washed out looking?
what color is your gravel/sand?
They look best with a dark or black substrate.
What are you feeding it? they are algae grazers and would benefit from plant matter or algae tabs.


plants help a lot to in terms of security.


there should be absolutely no need to change 25% of the water daily, in fact that could be part of the problem.
If the water quality tests fine, no need to change water.

 

[fishfan27]

is it pale and washed out looking?
what color is your gravel/sand?
They look best with a dark or black substrate.
What are you feeding it? they are algae grazers and would benefit from plant matter or algae tabs.


plants help a lot to in terms of security.


there should be absolutely no need to change 25% of the water daily, in fact that could be part of the problem.
If the water quality tests fine, no need to change water.

sometimes he has almost no color more so in his tail than his body but other times he has good coloration. I have whitish sand substrate pool sand to be exact.

I have tried feeding him all the different kinds of food at my disposal; blood worms, flake food & mini plant pellets. he seems to have the most reaction to the plant pellets, which is to say those are the only thing I have actually seen him eat at all and even then he seems disinterested in them.

he has been very erratic with his behavior he will sometimes be out and about swimming around the bottom of the tank (especialy at night when the light is out) but other times I will not see him for hours.

Thanks for the tips I will be sure to pull back some with the water changes and look into adding more plants

 

[PB_Smith]

sometimes he has almost no color more so in his tail than his body but other times he has good coloration. I have whitish sand substrate pool sand to be exact.

the white sand is probably the main reason for the washed out coloration.
sharks will also be completely washed out and sick looking first thing in the morning before they "turn on" their colors. lots of fish are that way.

you definitely should focus on algae/plant based foods for him.
Some have used blanched zucchini with success.

Now for some possible issues.
The person at the store should have advised you against getting a red-tailed shark first. They tend to be very territorial and can be very nasty when they want to be.
What that means is him being the first fish in will present problems when you introduce new fish as they will be invading the sharks "territory" because now he claims the entire tank.
Sharks should really be one of the last fish added to a community tank.
To help alleviate this, add lots of plants, real or fake, and re-arrange the rockwork/decorations when adding new fish. That forces them all to establish new territories and helps mitigate the initial aggression.

Also know that you can only keep one red-tailed or similar type of shark in a tank or they will kill each other.

 

[fishfan27]

the white sand is probably the main reason for the washed out coloration.
sharks will also be completely washed out and sick looking first thing in the morning before they "turn on" their colors. lots of fish are that way.

you definitely should focus on algae/plant based foods for him.
Some have used blanched zucchini with success.

Now for some possible issues.
The person at the store should have advised you against getting a red-tailed shark first. They tend to be very territorial and can be very nasty when they want to be.
What that means is him being the first fish in will present problems when you introduce new fish as they will be invading the sharks "territory" because now he claims the entire tank.
Sharks should really be one of the last fish added to a community tank.
To help alleviate this, add lots of plants, real or fake, and re-arrange the rockwork/decorations when adding new fish. That forces them all to establish new territories and helps mitigate the initial aggression.

Also know that you can only keep one red-tailed or similar type of shark in a tank or they will kill each other.

the part about adding only one red tail or similar looking fish a already knew but I had completely overlooked the part about adding him in first being a bad idea.

would you suggest that I move him to a different tank for a while while I am adding in new fish to let them get used to the tank then put him back in later, I have heard this can work when adding tankmates in with a betta fish.

 

[Bods2021]

My red tail is "grazing" on all objects in my tank at almost all times of day and night and eats literally anything I give him but his favorite is definitely shrimp pellets and algae tabs. As with being aggressive the only problem I've ever had is with my Dwarf Gourami. Would chase him all over to the point where I had to rehome the gourami. But he gets along fine with my schools of gold barbs and cardinal tetras, which were both added to the tank after him as well as my Angel which was added at the same time. Good luck. Although it doesnt seem to be the consensus in this forum the Red Tailed Black Shark is definitely one of my favorites.

 

[Gail]

I have a rainbow shark, they are much nicer, territorial, but not as mean as red tailed sharks.

 

[Holiove]

I just bought a red tail shark yesterday. He is very shy but he is also very young and is only 1 inch in length. I added him in last to my planted comunity tank with platy's, tetras, danios, a betta and a clown pleco. My tank is heavily planted and has rock caves and a hollowed stump. My red tail just stays in the stump most of the day and rarely swims the whole tank. Red tails usually take from 2 days to 2 weeks to de-stress and aquire "Normal" behavior. I have yet to see him eat the algae wafers and shrimp/krill pellets and I also put a slice of cucumber in the tank. I have not seen him eat yet and all of the fish just leave him alone and he leaves them alone. I also know that red tails should not be paired with some of the fish in my tank