Red Tail Shark - Day 1

[Fish Lawyer]

Hey All

Before I begin, let me say that I am putting up these updates as a referene point for anyone who ever thought of putting a Red Tail Shark in with Cichlids. No where on the internet seemed to give me a straight answer, so I hope this enlightens a few people. First of all, here is the fish that are in my tank:

* 2 Melanochromis Auratus

* 2 Electric Yellow Labs

* 1 Electric Blue Johanni (Soon to be adopted by a Friend)

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Decided to chance it and put a Red Tail Shark in my Cichlid Tank. He officially went in 4 hours ago and here is the current status:

When I put the bag in the water, my absolutely Satanist Johanni started to pick at the bag he was in... NOT A GOOD START. Roughly 45 minutes later, I released him into my tank. As soon as he got out of the bag, the Johanni started to pick at him, only to have the little RTS, (about 1 inch long), fight back. Since then I have been carefully monitoring the situation and he seems to fit right in. Even swimming alongside the other Cichlids.

I will keep you all up to date on this one as time goes on... No one seems really sure what will happen, but I will keep a close eye on things and keep you all appraised. Will report back tomorrow.

[RustyNut]

I have kept Rainbow sharks (almost the same as the RTS) and Flying Fox with cichlids too small to swallow them and they have gotten along fine.

[TrashmanNYC]

i have a Rainbow Shark in my 75 with no problems so far..........and before that he was in a 46g bow with cichlids for a year.........

[MGDMIRAGE]

I have a red tail in my 29g african malawi tank, all was fantastic until i added a bright orange zebra to the tank.. The red tail beat the holy crap out of him and i had to take the shark out before he killed the poor zebra.. So basically... avoid any bright orange or red cichlids with the red tail, he will perceive then as a threat, thinking perhaps they are another red tailed shark. They can be VERY relentless and are amazingly fast and skilled swimmers. It is however one of my all time favorite fish and i believe they would work together perfectly as most malawi and red tail have roughly same adult size. Red tails are pretty amazing fish, and tend to be quite a bit more aggressive then rainbows do. Just keep an eye on them. I hope to reintroduce my red tail again someday when i get a 75+ gallon tank for my cichlids.

[TrashmanNYC]

my rainbow shark is doing very well in my 75g with my africans.........

[sel & Scott]

my red tail "fergie" 4" long shares a ship wreck with 3 x clown loaches bout the same length and her best freind a papa panache pleco "dyson" whose @ 6" . . . she follows him everywhere an while he mooching about on the bottom she stays alongside him just watching him (very sweet) they all get on great cept when fergie chases the bala sharks when they get too near her pad.

[Misk]

I have a red tail in with 2 maingano's and a zebra (they're all around the same size) never had a problem someone once told me RTS are '**** fish' and to not bother keeping them but I think he just brings something different to the tank. Adding a few more fish in about a week and will update if i have any issues.

[eyeca]

I have a RTS in my 150 Gallon all male tank. They do just fine with them. I have 3 male red zebra(s) as well with other MBUNA.

[Escobert]

I have a bala with my mbuna and he does just fine. I've had him for a few years so he's big enough to defend himself.

[aquaplaya]

I've had red tails with rainbows and albino rainbows and cichlids in a tank and they respect one another and get along perfectly fine..... the dumb fish girl wouldn't sell us a cichlid and red tail together...because she said the cichlid would kill the red tail...this girl was very stupid ... my red tail is the smartest fish in my tank.and the baddest fastest fish in the 3tank connected tanks.. he always used the aqua bridge I built .... the bridge is 3 feet long and he will swim like 0-100mph through it...and he 'll always chase all the other fish...but he does' nt hurt them ... he's the boss of my 3tank connected tanks.... the chick at petstupid is a definite know it all ... in her mind... I wanna stick her in the tank and let the red tail chase her around... so I went to another pet smart and bought 2 more redtails and 3 cichlids and they are all friends in the tank...I actually have all the fish they said would not get along in the same tank and they have been doing perfectly fine...iex. kuili loaches,dojo, mollies, guppies, cory cats, platies, mini turtles on topthe ecosystem, chinese algae golden, snails... had them for a year now and no fish deaths.I feed them live brine every other day and it helps them get along just fine..... don't believe some pet rookie making $8.00 an hour at petdumb...

[belxavier420]

This thread is pretty old aquaplaya, but your 3 foot long tube that connects tanks sounds cool. You should start a thread and show us what it looks like .

[pford65]

I'd love to see pics of your 3 connected tank set up. I've often thought having something like that. A bit of a habitrail for fish, hehehe. Do you have pics to share Playa?

[Escobert]

yeah I'd be very interested to see that. I've always wanted to do a multiple tanks connected setup.