I definitely prefer the redtail shark especially for looks. I’ve kept both over the years and I’ve also experienced that relentless chasing with the rainbow sharks as well, except all of the redtails were just aggressive during feeding for like 30 minutes out of the day, while rainbow sharks were douchebags all day 24/7.
Your videos are awesome! I wanted to mimic a giant glofish cylinder tank that is in my LFS. I wanted to do an an all tiger Barb tank (maybe 20 of them) along with 1 rainbow I wanted to use a fluval 46 bowfront placing it in a corner of the room. I think the 46 bow is 3 feet wide. Is that enough for the rainbow?
Great video. I've had the exact same issues with both. The rainbow shark normally only chases real quick and then goes back to what it was doing so its ok for community tanks. If you have a tough fast bigger tetra like black skirt, buenos ares tetra, columbian tertra etc it can work for a schooling fish. Just as with my gold nugget pleco the catfish get some days with a lot of energy and are more aggressive during those days. My pleco when he hides 99 percent of the time has some days he aggressively swims on the glass an in the current with the lights on scaring all the other fish im the tank while he technically has the "zoomies". This is a 125 gallon with 40 lemon tetra, 7 bala sharks, gold nugget pleco and a 7in rainbow shark ive had for 4 years. He is much more aggressive at full size. I have a 500 gallon they are all upgrading too within the next year.
I work at a LFS and i try to educate everyone about these guys and to never keep more than one. A few uneducated people are very insistant on keeping two of them because they think "they need a friend" My rainbow is a sweetheart, even schools with my loaches from time to time and nibbles at my hand when im doing stuff in the tank, only ever shows aggression over food and even then its never anything serious. Ive heard mixed opinions on both, some saying redtails are more aggressive and rainbows less and vice versa. Definitely worth keeping one as long as you dont plan on keeping flying foxes or other sharks. Going to test the waters with a school of roselines once they grow a bit and if it doesnt work ill switch my rainbow to a seperate tank.
Back in the eighties I kept a albino rainbow with two oscars and a pleco in a ninety gallon tank for about three years. Someone got fed up with his trolling them. Because one day I came home to find him with his head completely gone. Only his head. He had great places to dive into when anyone got to close. He was just about full groan at the time. He was a beauty. Still think about that fish from time to time. Love a big fat red tail though.
Some guides put the rainbow shark at 5-6”, and the redtail shark at 5-8”, and I’ve found that to be true. They definitely overlap in size, but I’ve seen redtails get bigger.
Informative video - I've kept both myself and the Red-Tailed Shark was definitely the more aggressive in my opinion; they're super territorial with their one kind and anything that looks remotely like them, such as a Rainbow Shark and/or a Black Sailfin Mollie. In my experience, these two species should not be kept in the same aquarium together, as they will fight for territory and the more aggressive Red Tail usually ends up as the dominant shark, making the Rainbow's life a living hell. Thanks for your views (and) I like the minimalist look of your aquarium - perfect for the kind of fish you keep in there. Thanks for uploading.
Another thing to mention about the rainbow sharks is that you can also get them as GloFish. With colors being orange, green, blue, and purple. I did see larger purple ones at a fish store one time and their color was very dull, just like how the regular rainbows have the color fade.
Thats funny, my Redtail Shark is passive however he HATES mollies too lol. He leaves all the other fish alone but if mollies try to take his slice of zucchini... the chase is on. Chases in my tank doesn't last long though because its like a jungle with plants/rock/wood. Redtail will always be my favourite fish.
Hey Connor I am located in the fingerlakes area upstate NY I have a rainbow and would love to rehome him simply because I don't have a proper tank for him. So I have an empty 55 and a 29 tall tank I am working on a tank for him.. and doing research on mates to go with him.. he is in a 72° goldfish pond has a tunnel and loves the swim room however before the Temps drop here I won't be able to maintain Temps so its a short time thing.. do you thing he's best kept alone in the 55 gal.
Hi there, sorry for the delay on responding. Yes I think the 55 is best for him. At that size he'll be happy and comfortable. They tend to be pretty solitary fish so he'll do fine alone or until you find tank mates that work for him.
Our Albino Rainbow Shark looks exactly like yours, literally could be it's twin. We first named it Thor, but realized as it grew, it was a female (they tend to be larger/fuller shaped) and so we named her Maiko. We have had Maiko over 8 years, and she has had several tank mates in this time. Most recently the last year or so, we have had a red tiger barb with her in a 29 gallon tank and they are very were bestfriends. The barb would play hide and seek with our shark. Our shark does chase other fish, but we have never seen it hurt another fish. However, we have questioned a few fish we lost in the past that got nipped on their fins. Our shark has a cave she protects, but again, we have never seen her hurt another fish and have seen fish go in it, and she just chases them out of it at times. Sadly, our red tiger barb died recently, and we are debating if we should get another one as we are worried Maiko will be lonely without a tank mate. We were lucky to have a tank mate Maiko really bonded with. Do you think she would be ok at this point?
off topic species but dude i braught a pictus cat alone , didnt know it was a schooling type fish, braught 2 more for the mean while, the dude started fighting with one of them specifcially and beat its eye up , the first one i got always hides in a cave with a blue plhantom pleco and keeps chasing out the other pictus , took the one with the bad eye out and he started shouling around with the other pictus
Hello! Awesome video there!! I just have a question. Would a single rainbow shark be able to live in a 29 gallon planted tank alone without any other fish or would that be too small? Keep up the awesome videos!
I would say yes the tank size is ok and I would say add in possibly cat fish are a good companions particularly those which don’t have a shark fin appearance so bristlenose are good. I have a pictus catfish and the red tail chases after it a bit but he holds his own and the red tail doesn’t even register the bristle nose. Tiger barbs are also a possibility though you would want maybe 6 at least.
My red tail os no more than an inch and a half, a baby, and he bullies anything he wants. Moved to my grow out african cichlid juvenile tank and they get along good.
![[DRIP] ‘BILLIONAIRE’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m0eXQD0gIeE/mqdefault.jpg)
I definitely prefer the redtail shark especially for looks. I’ve kept both over the years and I’ve also experienced that relentless chasing with the rainbow sharks as well, except all of the redtails were just aggressive during feeding for like 30 minutes out of the day, while rainbow sharks were douchebags all day 24/7.
Your videos are awesome! I wanted to mimic a giant glofish cylinder tank that is in my LFS. I wanted to do an an all tiger Barb tank (maybe 20 of them) along with 1 rainbow I wanted to use a fluval 46 bowfront placing it in a corner of the room. I think the 46 bow is 3 feet wide. Is that enough for the rainbow?
Great video. I've had the exact same issues with both. The rainbow shark normally only chases real quick and then goes back to what it was doing so its ok for community tanks. If you have a tough fast bigger tetra like black skirt, buenos ares tetra, columbian tertra etc it can work for a schooling fish. Just as with my gold nugget pleco the catfish get some days with a lot of energy and are more aggressive during those days. My pleco when he hides 99 percent of the time has some days he aggressively swims on the glass an in the current with the lights on scaring all the other fish im the tank while he technically has the "zoomies". This is a 125 gallon with 40 lemon tetra, 7 bala sharks, gold nugget pleco and a 7in rainbow shark ive had for 4 years. He is much more aggressive at full size. I have a 500 gallon they are all upgrading too within the next year.
I work at a LFS and i try to educate everyone about these guys and to never keep more than one. A few uneducated people are very insistant on keeping two of them because they think "they need a friend"
My rainbow is a sweetheart, even schools with my loaches from time to time and nibbles at my hand when im doing stuff in the tank, only ever shows aggression over food and even then its never anything serious. Ive heard mixed opinions on both, some saying redtails are more aggressive and rainbows less and vice versa. Definitely worth keeping one as long as you dont plan on keeping flying foxes or other sharks. Going to test the waters with a school of roselines once they grow a bit and if it doesnt work ill switch my rainbow to a seperate tank.
Great video
Thanks for the great info
Back in the eighties I kept a albino rainbow with two oscars and a pleco in a ninety gallon tank for about three years. Someone got fed up with his trolling them. Because one day I came home to find him with his head completely gone. Only his head. He had great places to dive into when anyone got to close. He was just about full groan at the time. He was a beauty. Still think about that fish from time to time. Love a big fat red tail though.
This really helped me decide if sharks were a good fit for me. Thank you for posting your experience!
Some guides put the rainbow shark at 5-6”, and the redtail shark at 5-8”, and I’ve found that to be true. They definitely overlap in size, but I’ve seen redtails get bigger.
Informative video - I've kept both myself and the Red-Tailed Shark was definitely the more aggressive in my opinion; they're super territorial with their one kind and anything that looks remotely like them, such as a Rainbow Shark and/or a Black Sailfin Mollie. In my experience, these two species should not be kept in the same aquarium together, as they will fight for territory and the more aggressive Red Tail usually ends up as the dominant shark, making the Rainbow's life a living hell. Thanks for your views (and) I like the minimalist look of your aquarium - perfect for the kind of fish you keep in there. Thanks for uploading.
Your experience sounds similar to mine with both species. Thanks for the comment and checking out the video
But the Black Shark terrorize both of them
@@DP_773 Yeah, that's one mean fish...
Another thing to mention about the rainbow sharks is that you can also get them as GloFish. With colors being orange, green, blue, and purple. I did see larger purple ones at a fish store one time and their color was very dull, just like how the regular rainbows have the color fade.
Thats funny, my Redtail Shark is passive however he HATES mollies too lol. He leaves all the other fish alone but if mollies try to take his slice of zucchini... the chase is on. Chases in my tank doesn't last long though because its like a jungle with plants/rock/wood. Redtail will always be my favourite fish.
Hey Connor
I am located in the fingerlakes area upstate NY I have a rainbow and would love to rehome him simply because I don't have a proper tank for him. So I have an empty 55 and a 29 tall tank I am working on a tank for him.. and doing research on mates to go with him.. he is in a 72° goldfish pond has a tunnel and loves the swim room however before the Temps drop here I won't be able to maintain Temps so its a short time thing.. do you thing he's best kept alone in the 55 gal.
Hi there, sorry for the delay on responding. Yes I think the 55 is best for him. At that size he'll be happy and comfortable. They tend to be pretty solitary fish so he'll do fine alone or until you find tank mates that work for him.
Our Albino Rainbow Shark looks exactly like yours, literally could be it's twin. We first named it Thor, but realized as it grew, it was a female (they tend to be larger/fuller shaped) and so we named her Maiko. We have had Maiko over 8 years, and she has had several tank mates in this time. Most recently the last year or so, we have had a red tiger barb with her in a 29 gallon tank and they are very were bestfriends. The barb would play hide and seek with our shark. Our shark does chase other fish, but we have never seen it hurt another fish. However, we have questioned a few fish we lost in the past that got nipped on their fins.
Our shark has a cave she protects, but again, we have never seen her hurt another fish and have seen fish go in it, and she just chases them out of it at times.
Sadly, our red tiger barb died recently, and we are debating if we should get another one as we are worried Maiko will be lonely without a tank mate. We were lucky to have a tank mate Maiko really bonded with. Do you think she would be ok at this point?
off topic species but dude i braught a pictus cat alone , didnt know it was a schooling type fish, braught 2 more for the mean while, the dude started fighting with one of them specifcially and beat its eye up , the first one i got always hides in a cave with a blue plhantom pleco and keeps chasing out the other pictus , took the one with the bad eye out and he started shouling around with the other pictus
Hello! Awesome video there!! I just have a question. Would a single rainbow shark be able to live in a 29 gallon planted tank alone without any other fish or would that be too small? Keep up the awesome videos!
I would say yes the tank size is ok and I would say add in possibly cat fish are a good companions particularly those which don’t have a shark fin appearance so bristlenose are good. I have a pictus catfish and the red tail chases after it a bit but he holds his own and the red tail doesn’t even register the bristle nose. Tiger barbs are also a possibility though you would want maybe 6 at least.
@@DiamondMind630 Okay, thank you.
One fact donot keep any of the two with a blood parrot it will literally eat rainbow shark/redtail shark i had a similar experience
They don’t always react negatively together I’ve had them together and they lived together healthy for a few years
My red tail and rainbow try to kill each other for territory!! Had to separate them 😢
My red tail os no more than an inch and a half, a baby, and he bullies anything he wants. Moved to my grow out african cichlid juvenile tank and they get along good.
Parrot fish eat rainbow sharks
🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
i have a rainbow shark with 9 tiger bars it likes to hide under my sponge filter
Does he get along with the barbs? I am thinking of mixing the two as well.
black sharks are way cooler than either of these.