Red-Tailed Shark Coloring

Trevor Stenson wrote:
In article ,
netDenizen wrote:

-ED wrote:
I just added a RT black shark to my tank this week and I wanted to post a
question about his coloring....The fish appears grey with black fins, save
the red tail fin. The body lenght is close to 1.5 inches...I was curious to
find out if it will develope into the 'jet' black body I've read about; or
will this grey-color remain, or is it an indication of his/her mood...

Thanks for the help...-ED


I don't know about the colour, but it will probably become a big, mean
son-of-a-b. My brother had one for 7 years plus and it was the boss of
the tank - not a nice fish, actually.

My Rainbow shark turns a lighter shade of pale black when stressed.
(ie, major water change, "tankscaping", etc.). But even when it is
healthy and happy I wouldn't call it jet black. For them a touch of
grey-kind of suits them anyway, and it's alright.

I had, as a youth a Red-Tailed Black Shark, and at one time a Rainbow
Shark. The RTBS had a black body.

For whatever reason, my RTBS was not aggressive at all - and this was in
a 10 gallon community tank mind you. He lived for years and was not a
problem fish. The two rainbows I've had seemed more aggressive.

I currently have a Rainbow Shark in a 20+ gallon tank.

I think the trick with both sharks is to give them a nice cave they can
call their own, don't over-crowd with lots of middle to or top-to-bottom
dwellers (although mine have seemed to like a the company of at least
one other bottom dweller), have lots of plant cover for the other fish
and most of all find the right balance of tank-mates that won't p@ss it
off.

For instance, my Rainbow shark is not threatened by my Pleco or my
Swordtails.

[yes I know (thanks to the group) that the Pleco will have to be moved
at some point when out grows the tank]

The RS pays those other fish little attention. As for my Betta, well he
is a top dweller, and I have plenty of plant coverage including floating
Hornwort so he stays out the sharks way. They did spar off a lot when
they were about the same size as were determining who would be the alpha
fish.

Now that the shark is much bigger he's the heavy weight champ. He
wasn't compatible at all with neon tetras. I found that out the hard
way.

Cheers,

TS

Well, should I concern myself with the Danios I've put in there. At
present, 10 Zebras are in there.
Thanks.........-ED

On Sun, 07 May 2006 14:36:17 GMT, -ED wrote:

Trevor Stenson wrote:
In article ,
netDenizen wrote:

-ED wrote:
I just added a RT black shark to my tank this week and I wanted to post a
question about his coloring....The fish appears grey with black fins, save
the red tail fin. The body lenght is close to 1.5 inches...I was curious to
find out if it will develope into the 'jet' black body I've read about; or
will this grey-color remain, or is it an indication of his/her mood...

Thanks for the help...-ED


I don't know about the colour, but it will probably become a big, mean
son-of-a-b. My brother had one for 7 years plus and it was the boss of
the tank - not a nice fish, actually.

My Rainbow shark turns a lighter shade of pale black when stressed.
(ie, major water change, "tankscaping", etc.). But even when it is
healthy and happy I wouldn't call it jet black. For them a touch of
grey-kind of suits them anyway, and it's alright.

I had, as a youth a Red-Tailed Black Shark, and at one time a Rainbow
Shark. The RTBS had a black body.

For whatever reason, my RTBS was not aggressive at all - and this was in
a 10 gallon community tank mind you. He lived for years and was not a
problem fish. The two rainbows I've had seemed more aggressive.

I currently have a Rainbow Shark in a 20+ gallon tank.

I think the trick with both sharks is to give them a nice cave they can
call their own, don't over-crowd with lots of middle to or top-to-bottom
dwellers (although mine have seemed to like a the company of at least
one other bottom dweller), have lots of plant cover for the other fish
and most of all find the right balance of tank-mates that won't p@ss it
off.

For instance, my Rainbow shark is not threatened by my Pleco or my
Swordtails.

[yes I know (thanks to the group) that the Pleco will have to be moved
at some point when out grows the tank]

The RS pays those other fish little attention. As for my Betta, well he
is a top dweller, and I have plenty of plant coverage including floating
Hornwort so he stays out the sharks way. They did spar off a lot when
they were about the same size as were determining who would be the alpha
fish.

Now that the shark is much bigger he's the heavy weight champ. He
wasn't compatible at all with neon tetras. I found that out the hard
way.

Cheers,

TS

Well, should I concern myself with the Danios I've put in there. At
present, 10 Zebras are in there.
Thanks.........-ED

I once read a description of zebra danios as "constantly moving about
the tank yet never appearing restless or nervous." And yes, that's
what they do. Plenty of action, never disruptive. They must love your
big tank. Zebras were one of the first egglayers that I spawned, I
have a special place in my heart for them.

-- Mister Gardener
-- Pull the WEED to email me

-ED - wrote,
should I concern myself with the Danios I've put in there...

They will be fine untill the RTBS is large enough to take them in one
bite. I had an 8" RTBS in a 180 gal. (2' x 2' x 6'). Since I was
breeding them, I fed White Clouds to this tank. The RTBS could easy
take a 1.5" White Cloud in a split second from across the tank. They
are a lot faster than you could ever think a Danio or White Cloud could
be. Funny thing though, it was around 5" before it took it's first
Cardenal Tetra. Had to move him to the 180 gal. tank the following day
as he went through a half dozen before I figured out it was him - the
Cardenals were his tankmates from day one................. Frank

On Mon, 08 May 2006 00:57:04 -0500, Frank wrote:

-ED - wrote,
should I concern myself with the Danios I've put in there...

They will be fine untill the RTBS is large enough to take them in one
bite. I had an 8" RTBS in a 180 gal. (2' x 2' x 6'). Since I was
breeding them, I fed White Clouds to this tank. The RTBS could easy
take a 1.5" White Cloud in a split second from across the tank. They
are a lot faster than you could ever think a Danio or White Cloud could
be. Funny thing though, it was around 5" before it took it's first
Cardenal Tetra. Had to move him to the 180 gal. tank the following day
as he went through a half dozen before I figured out it was him - the
Cardenals were his tankmates from day one................. Frank


Holy Shark-Bites Batman....=0 This sounds like the theory I heard years
ago that alot of tropical fish will 'grow in scale' to their environment..
I'm glad you told me about the reflex this fish is capable of. That's
enlightening to say the least. I'm looking forward to his maturity. He's
a pale grey at the moment..at times I notice his red tail almost fading to
a translucent/transparent coloring. I've got my eye on him. I wish I had
set this tank up as a headboard for my bedroom. 8" is quite a sizable
fish I must say. He must have been a trophy, indeed. I'm not looking
forward to him getting that big..for it will force me to build the bigger
tanks I mentioned before. I'm rough-drafting some plans now, but I need
to concern myself with the load it will present in my upstairs apartment..
As such, I feel that a long, thin tank would put the load more on the
support wall..ie- about 7'x 21"x 14" from the wall. I'm gonna have to
visit more sites that illustrate today's construction techniques to havea
better handle on its overall dimensions.
Thanks for the holler....-ED

--
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OFF TOPIC - Ed, your return address on your email is bouncing. If
there is a secret to contacting you, please email me with the details.

-- Mister Gardener
-- Pull the WEED to email me

Holy Shark-Bites Batman....=0 This sounds like the theory I heard years
ago that alot of tropical fish will 'grow in scale' to their environment.

I'm not sure he is saying that for a fact. I used to believe in that
but maybe there is a slight tank-size effect in that if a fish isn't
eating and thriving because it is not happy in its environment, then it
will tend not to grow as fast.

But anyway both my Pleco and Rainbow Shark have grown to about 6 inches
and 4 inches, respectively (and both with large girth) in less that 5
months. They started out an inch or less in length. That is in a 20
gallon tank, and the shark getting big did at least correlate with his
taste for Neon Tetras.

I'll probably trade my Pleco in for a Bristlenose when he gets too big
for the tank.

Cheers,

Trev

--
Trevor Stenson

http://members.shaw.ca/kitschy/Digs.html
http://members.shaw.ca/kitschy/Blog/Blog.html

"Trevor Stenson" wrote in message
news:kitschy-2B5BA3.07344608052006@shawnews...
Holy Shark-Bites Batman....=0 This sounds like the theory I heard
years
ago that alot of tropical fish will 'grow in scale' to their
environment.

I'm not sure he is saying that for a fact. I used to believe in that
but maybe there is a slight tank-size effect in that if a fish isn't
eating and thriving because it is not happy in its environment, then it
will tend not to grow as fast.

But anyway both my Pleco and Rainbow Shark have grown to about 6 inches
and 4 inches, respectively (and both with large girth) in less that 5
months. They started out an inch or less in length. That is in a 20
gallon tank, and the shark getting big did at least correlate with his
taste for Neon Tetras.

I'll probably trade my Pleco in for a Bristlenose when he gets too big
for the tank.

Cheers,

Trev


There's definitely a strong correlation between tank size and fish size,
but the general consensus is that water quality is a bigger vector (and
not coincidentally, large tanks typically have better water quality).
That and diet. It's not unusual to see sudden growth rate being
associated with foods being given. This is most obvious with fry as they
move through different food groups, but you can see it in older fish as
well, particularly when fed live foods (fish, shrimp, bugs, worms etc).

The RTBS eventually attacking tank-mates sounds about right (though I've
never had an RTBS that large and I'm jealous). Tank-mates are isolated
from being food for a long time. Usually until one gets ill and swims
funny and then the larger fish's instinct gets stronger and it takes a
bite. Then it's a buffet smorgasbord. Adding new small fish can also
trigger this. Angelfish keepers are often familiar with DNT
'disappearing Neon threshold' ;~).
--
www.NetMax.tk

"NetMax" wrote in message
...
"Trevor Stenson" wrote in message
news:kitschy-2B5BA3.07344608052006@shawnews...

-- There's definitely a strong correlation between tank size and fish
size, but the general consensus is that water quality is a bigger vector
(and not coincidentally, large tanks typically have better water quality).
That and diet. It's not unusual to see sudden growth rate being
associated with foods being given. This is most obvious with fry as they
move through different food groups, but you can see it in older fish as
well, particularly when fed live foods (fish, shrimp, bugs, worms etc).

www.NetMax.tk


I was reading a web page on betta's this guy was doing all kinds of
experiments, one was to see if clean water made the fish grow faster, so he
separated two groups of fish and changed ones water a lot and the others not
so often, feed the same food and did everything else the same, after some
time pasted the fish who's water was being changed a lot and kept very clean
grew a lot faster, then he did a test to see if he then started doing the
water changes more often on the other set of fish if they would catch up and
they did. He went on to do all kind of different things like that it was
interesting.
Nik

On Mon, 8 May 2006 12:54:09 -0400, "Nikki"
wrote:


"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .
"Trevor Stenson" wrote in message
news:kitschy-2B5BA3.07344608052006@shawnews...

-- There's definitely a strong correlation between tank size and fish
size, but the general consensus is that water quality is a bigger vector
(and not coincidentally, large tanks typically have better water quality).
That and diet. It's not unusual to see sudden growth rate being
associated with foods being given. This is most obvious with fry as they
move through different food groups, but you can see it in older fish as
well, particularly when fed live foods (fish, shrimp, bugs, worms etc).

www.NetMax.tk


I was reading a web page on betta's this guy was doing all kinds of
experiments, one was to see if clean water made the fish grow faster, so he
separated two groups of fish and changed ones water a lot and the others not
so often, feed the same food and did everything else the same, after some
time pasted the fish who's water was being changed a lot and kept very clean
grew a lot faster, then he did a test to see if he then started doing the
water changes more often on the other set of fish if they would catch up and
they did. He went on to do all kind of different things like that it was
interesting.
Nik

Makes sense. And is interesting. Now, if only more people would read
articles like his and follow through with the conclusions . . .

-- Mister Gardener
-- Pull the WEED to email me