# recommend any fish and the silver tail shark size



## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

yeah they get about 3ft and are catfish not sharks. Not good aquarium fish. 
Unless you have a couple thousand gallons to work with.


----------



## joe the pleco (Jul 16, 2007)

Do you mean silver shark?


----------



## Boz (Jan 8, 2007)

Aren't those balas? Up there with the top ten fish that should be banned from petshops. If you are indeed looking at balas, and you want them to actually live a healthy life, you'll need no less than six, and you'll need a minimum of a ten foot tank. They get at least a foot long and need lots of open swimming space to prevent them from bashing themselves into tank walls. 

There are so many better choices for you than balas. Do you have an image in your mind of what you'd like your tank to look like?


----------



## Jessica (Mar 1, 2007)

First and foremost, we'll need to know how large your tank is 

Silver tail sharks.... Bala shark? Like Boz said...no go unless you have a huge tank.

Another shark that can sometimes go by 'silver tail' is the Columbian shark (Arius jordani).... also needing a very large tank.

Let's get some more info from you and then we can help you brainstorm!

Something to keep in mind ..... never trust the chain stores. And even then, be wary of the info you're given even at the "credible" mom & pop shop fish stores. Sometimes, they're only in it for the buck and will tell you what you want to hear in order to make the sale. The PetsMarts and PetCo's of the world will sell you a Pacu in good confidence for a 30 gallon tank. In my opinion,that's animal abuse. In their opinion, that's business. Always ask a lot of questions (here and other forums; lots of people with experience to help you honestly) and do lots of preliminary research beforehand so you know when to call Bullcrap on salespeople.


----------



## kunerd (Jul 19, 2005)

Boz said:


> Up there with the top ten fish that should be banned from petshops. If


so very true. My first tank was 10g and the store sold me 3 bala's and 3 tin foil bards.  OMG lets say i had to get a 30g about a month later for them and after about 3 months had to get a 55g for them and thats when i went to planted tanks and away went them both. The tin foils were easily the size of sun fish and the bala's were the size of a small trout. not aquarium fish. Unless you have a large tank....


----------



## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

silver tip sharks. they are real cute ehn you see them at the pet store.









Then they grow.









And Grow









And Grow









and just for the heck of it. heres their big cousen.


----------



## joe the pleco (Jul 16, 2007)

Wow!! They grow so big!


----------



## ILuvMyGoldBarb (Jul 15, 2006)

Do I like them? Yes. Are they going to be appropriate for a home aquarium.
I believe you are talking about *Hexanematichthys seemanni*









Don't get your heart set on them. They are a brackish catfish. Here's the quote from planetcatfish


> Salt should be added in relation to the age of the fish. The older the fish, the more salt, right up to 100% marine. The fish is very tolerate of changes of salinity and will live in freshwater happily as a young fish.


Balas are usually known as Black Tip or Tri-color sharks, not silver tips. Can you find the Latin name of the fish you are looking for? It would be much easier and we would all then be on the same page.

Any one of the 3 fish that people have mentioned will create problems foryou, they are all too big for most home aquairums. 1 of them too big for almost any aquarium. Balas are one of the only viable fish mentioned.


----------



## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

People EAT those things.


----------



## Jessica (Mar 1, 2007)

If you have your heart set on cute silver looking shark/cats, look into the DeBauwi Catfish or "Striped African Glass Catfish." They are peaceful schoolers that stay around the 4" and under mark. Might be a little pricey and hard to find, but a much better choice.

There are two species that go by this name: Pareutropius debauwi & Pareutropius buffei.


http://www.scotcat.com/pareutropius_buffei.html


----------



## Gekkoo (Jul 30, 2007)

Sorry i did mean silver sharks (balas), i was only wondering how big they grow because i have been told that they grow huge but i have never seen one any bigger than about 6 inches.


> Do you have an image in your mind of what you'd like your tank to look like?


 Well i am trying to get a tank that is around 25 gallons FW-PT. I would like to get tetras, platies, guppies, breeding pair of molly, otos, cory and I am looking for a nice centrepiece fish ((-that's why i was talking about a Silver Shark but i now realise it wouldn't fit and be happy-))
I was just wondering which IYO is your favriote fish to a 20G PT.

Thanks Sorry for the confusion about the catfish, but even so i was amazed by your little presentation Blacksunshine!


----------



## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Careful on overstocking. If you are new to the hobby, it's probably safer to go below the 1 inch of fish per gallon rule. 12 tetras may be fine in a 10 gal, but a foot of pleco is just cruel.


----------



## Gekkoo (Jul 30, 2007)

sorry it's 31 gallon


----------



## Jessica (Mar 1, 2007)

Platies and mollies are wonderful little fish, but be warned: 1+1=40. They can store sperm from one mating which will yield multiple broods of fry. Since you're just starting out, I would avoid one or the other so you can get a feel for your tank, rather than being overwhelmed with oodles of platies and mollies.

Or, ask the store to just sell you a male or two. That way, you can still have the comical color and action, but no need to worry about rehoming a bunch of offspring.


----------



## Chris267 (Jul 24, 2007)

I would like to get tetras said:


> I would not go with male/female guppies either.. you will be over-run! My Hubby decided he wanted to add them to an 80l tank we have against my advice & we soon had to use a seperate tank for all the fry.. if you are able to buy another tank to keep all the babies from mollies, platies and guppies its ok.. but if not stick to buying males... I have seperated all the males into one tank now & hubby knows better :icon_roll
> ps, you will adore corys! and galaxy rasbora are a nice small fish


----------

