The *Original* fish/aquarium thread. Today's Guest, Bala Sharks...

[Thoreau]

Ok, I know i'm retarded for taking any advice from the drones at Petsmart, but they told me that Bala Sharks and Tiger Barbs are very compatible in that you can keep them in the same tank with no problems such as fin nipping, chasing, cannibalism, etc. So here I am with a tank that's got two Balas, and three Tiger Barbs (and a few other fish). With the Balas costing $10 a pop, i'm a bit peeved that the tiger barbs seem to be trying to get midnight snacks off of his fins.

Anyone know of a way to make these fish get along, or at least not try to kill each other? I *really* like bala sharks, but at that price it's kinda stupid for me to buy them only for them to be killed, and I can't go with *just* bala sharks since the tank is only 30 gallons, and those fish need plenty of space. Ideas/help/fish toys greatly appreciated!

 

[Izzo]

I have no idea to the answer to your question. However, my one experience with fish is a bad one. I have no idea what I did wrong but all of my fish (approx 10, assorted varieties) died quickly. It may have been because we didn't let the aquarium filter for the proper amount of time before adding the fish. So if the store tells you to let your aquarium filter for a few days before adding fish, then don' t get impatient and add the fish right after adding water. But I was only 10 at the time.

 

[Doggiedog]

Bala Sharks are Silver Sharks right?

They get pretty big I think. In the long run, if they make it, I'm sure the tiger barbs will be the ones running for cover.

On a related topic, when I was an aquarium noob, I put a gar in my tank with my tiger barbs. Next thing I know, I see the gar snap a tiger barb in its jaws and swallow it. It was pretty funny. Not for the barb of course.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
Bala Sharks are Silver Sharks right?

They get pretty big I think. In the long run, if they make it, I'm sure the tiger barbs will be the ones running for cover.

On a related topic, when I was an aquarium noob, I put a gar in my tank with my tiger barbs. Next thing I know, I see the gar snap a tiger barb in its jaws and swallow it. It was pretty funny. Not for the barb of course.

I think they are referred to Silver Sharks as well, altho i'm not too sure. I just don't know if I wanna go for the craps shoot at $10 a shot to find the one Bala that does survive. And yes, they can definitely get pretty big, ~1 foot-1.5 feet from what I understand. The good thing about that is that they usually won't grow too big if they don't have a ton of space. So in smaller tanks, they stay much smaller (or so I've heard.) Right now the two that I have are only about 5-6 inches long from nose to tail fin.

I do have a second tank (since the current 30 gallon one was simply an upgrade to the previous 20) so I could in theory seperate them, but maintaining one tank is enough work as it is, let alone doing playground patrol for these little buggers.

Note: Petsmart's site does show that the bala is also called silver. Link

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: Izzo
I have no idea to the answer to your question. However, my one experience with fish is a bad one. I have no idea what I did wrong but all of my fish (approx 10, assorted varieties) died quickly. It may have been because we didn't let the aquarium filter for the proper amount of time before adding the fish. So if the store tells you to let your aquarium filter for a few days before adding fish, then don' t get impatient and add the fish right after adding water. But I was only 10 at the time.

Hehe, I almost did the same thing when I got my 20 gallon tank. I was so anxious to see something swimming in it I barely gave it a day of filtering before I tossed in a few fish. Started off with a half dozen or so Neon Tetras (cool fish), algae eater, Lamp-eye Tetras, and some small catfish thing (which is still alive and kicking.)

Then I got interested in the bala shark, rainbow shark, and tiger barbs. Tossing in the Bala was no problem, until he ate all the neons. After that I just decided to go from community tank to semi-aggressive tank. Starting to have second thoughts on that one right now.

 

[Doggiedog]

I had a silver shark once in my 70 gallon tank and it got pretty big.

If you want a semi aggressive tank, get convicts and severums. If you want a fun aggressive tank get african cichlids.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: DoggiedogIf you want a fun aggressive tank get african cichlids.

Hehe, I don't need something that will not only eat all the other fish, but that will eat my hand if given the chance as well. =) Altho a friend of mine does have a tank with quite a few oscars in it. He says they're kinda like dogs in that they will recognize you when you walk into the room then swim towards you.

 

[Jzero]

Tiger barbs will nip at anything they can get their little mouths on. I don't think there's much you can do about it.

 

[phonemonkey]

When I bought my tank, I had 5 large Balas in it (the smallest was 4 inches long), and 3 cichlids. From what I saw, they all left each other alone, but the cichlids would drive the cats nuts cause they wouldn't run away.

 

[Thoreau]

I'm pretty close to just tossing in a couple oscars and letting them have their way with the other fish. It may cost a bit of cash, but at least I know the oscars won't kill each other, or at least I hope i know.

 

[Quixfire]

Originally posted by: Jzero
Tiger barbs will nip at anything they can get their little mouths on. I don't think there's much you can do about it.

 

[BCYL]

Why not buy a divider and seperate them?

 

[StageLeft]

I had tiger barbs once. THey look nice but nasty little bastards and they eat almost any other fish!

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Jzero
Tiger barbs will nip at anything they can get their little mouths on. I don't think there's much you can do about it.

Yup... they should have told you that the tiger barbs are agressive. What kills me is that my wife put some small cichlids in with Oscars (another type of cichlid)... the small cichlids are smaller than the feeder fish... yet the oscars leave them alone. (Surprises me!)

 

[LordJezo]

What do you do with a fishtank if you go away for a day or two and can't be around to feed the fish?

 

[ITCHY96]

your fish be fine without food for 2-3 days. just put the lights on a timer and change the water a few days before u leave. the longest i went without feeding my fish was 8 days and they were fine.

 

[BCYL]

Originally posted by: LordJezo
What do you do with a fishtank if you go away for a day or two and can't be around to feed the fish?

You can buy automatic feeders, which will drop food in the tank at a set interval...

 

[spacejamz]

Originally posted by: LordJezo
What do you do with a fishtank if you go away for a day or two and can't be around to feed the fish?

you can buy three or four day feeding blocks at your local pet store...they dissolve slowly over the course of a few days releasing food into the water as they dissolve.

For longer periods of time, you can buy a battery operated feeder that you place on the edge of your tank. It spins in a clocklike motion. Everytime the opening reaches 6:00, the food will drop into the water. IIRC, these hold enough food for about a week...

One other note, I have read that fish can go up to two weeks without feeding...not sure how true that is...

 

[littleprince]

For 1 or 2 days dont screw with those nasty feeding blocks. Your fish will be fine.
My cichlids can go w/o food for weeks while breeding...

Stop going to petsmart. Try some other aquaria dedicated forums. aquariacentral.com will do wonders for the original poster.

Thoreau: your tank is no where near enough for an Oscar. Please do some research first.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: BCYL
Why not buy a divider and seperate them?

My only inhibition there is the fact that balas love lots of space. Being longer fish, they need more room horizontally, which wouldnt work out since tank dividers are usually vertical. I'm already pretty close to just picking up an oscar and letting him have his way with the tank just so that i can stop thinking about that evil tank!

 

[BCYL]

Originally posted by: Thoreau

Originally posted by: BCYL
Why not buy a divider and seperate them?

My only inhibition there is the fact that balas love lots of space. Being longer fish, they need more room horizontally, which wouldnt work out since tank dividers are usually vertical. I'm already pretty close to just picking up an oscar and letting him have his way with the tank just so that i can stop thinking about that evil tank!

Then buy another tank i guess... you can pick up a 10 gallon one for pretty cheap at your local pet store...

 

[Mutilator]

Originally posted by: Thoreau
I'm pretty close to just tossing in a couple oscars and letting them have their way with the other fish. It may cost a bit of cash, but at least I know the oscars won't kill each other, or at least I hope i know.

Bad idea for many reasons. Here are a few.

It seems that six Oscars is about the smallest number of Oscars that can live together without the weakest Oscar being miserable, and twelve Oscars of about the same size will usually live together without the weakest being miserable. We summarize these facts by saying, "Keep one Oscar or several Oscars but not a few Oscars."

Eventually each Oscar will need about 80 gallons of water. So a group of six Oscars will eventually need about 500, and twelve Oscars will need an aquarium with about 1000 gallons of water. So if you won't be getting an aquarium with at least 500 gallons of water, you should plan to keep one Oscar. Think about this before you get an Oscar.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: littleprince
For 1 or 2 days dont screw with those nasty feeding blocks. Your fish will be fine.
My cichlids can go w/o food for weeks while breeding...

Stop going to petsmart. Try some other aquaria dedicated forums. aquariacentral.com will do wonders for the original poster.

Thoreau: your tank is no where near enough for an Oscar. Please do some research first.

30 gallons with a filter rated for a 60 gallon tank is not enough for an oscar? Wow, I knew they were messy fish, and somewhat large, but wow.

Thanks for the link too, i've been looking for a decent place for info on this type of stuff. =)

 

[ExplodingBoy]

You've got 3 problems with this setup (space isn't one of them)

1- Both Balas and Tigers swim at similar levels (mid to high) so they are constantly going to be in eachother's face
2- Tigers are extremely territorial and notorious nippers / Balas are relatively slower movers and make good targets
3- You have more Tigers than Balas so the Tigers will be more agressive

Basically this is a terrible combination. Your Balas will be slowly nipped to death.

If I were you I'd get rid of the Tiger barbs and replace them with neons. Similar looks and the neons should bother the Balas too much. And you could throw a pleco, cory cat, or clown loach in there. They are all relatively unagressive and tend to stay towards the bottom. Some people like mollies or platys. They aren't agressive but are very curious/gregarious and can annoy/stress other fish w/o being nippers.

 

[Thoreau]

Originally posted by: Mutilator

Originally posted by: Thoreau
I'm pretty close to just tossing in a couple oscars and letting them have their way with the other fish. It may cost a bit of cash, but at least I know the oscars won't kill each other, or at least I hope i know.

Bad idea for many reasons. Here are a few.

It seems that six Oscars is about the smallest number of Oscars that can live together without the weakest Oscar being miserable, and twelve Oscars of about the same size will usually live together without the weakest being miserable. We summarize these facts by saying, "Keep one Oscar or several Oscars but not a few Oscars."

Eventually each Oscar will need about 80 gallons of water. So a group of six Oscars will eventually need about 500, and twelve Oscars will need an aquarium with about 1000 gallons of water. So if you won't be getting an aquarium with at least 500 gallons of water, you should plan to keep one Oscar. Think about this before you get an Oscar.

:Q