Silver Sharks

[Pete]

Hi I'm thinking of getting 4 or 5 of these to go in one of the large (400 litre ) pleco tanks
I saw them at our LFS and they look really attractive
I've never kept these before so thought that I better find out a bit more about them
I understand that they grow quite big but thats fine as they will be in a large tank
Question is will they eat smaller fish like Striped barbs and tetras?
My book says that they are OK with smaller fish just wanted to check though
Pete

 

[FF MkII]

All i know about them is that they have very small mouths for such a large fish, predominantly herbivorous and quite skittish if spooked.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
They are "Balantiocheilos melanopterus" (I suppose that is where the "Bala Shark" alternative name comes from) and they grow very big (I think Bristol Zoo has a shoal - 12" long and chunky).
cheers Darrel

 

[Paul]

I know someone who has a shoal that are 32-39cm in length. So they will grow huge. Very easily scared as well. Make sure you have a tight lid because they're good jumpers given the chance.


Paul

 

[bre]

We had a pair, between 25 to 30 cm each. Really nice to watch swim around, tend to leave all other fish alone and not a fussy fish.
but, as said, they do grow quite large (but look great at that size) and are very skittish. Any movement near the tank can spook them and they'll dart around the tank crashing into the sides, lids, any ornaments. We ended up having to take out all ornaments and place weights on the lids to stop them knocking them off. They seem to get cuts etc quite easily too so make sure you have plenty of melafix and pimafix on hand.

 

[Scroggybank]

Yup, agree with them being easilly spooked.
I had a small shoal of six at about 9 inches & they used to go nuts darting about the tank when you walked into the room.

 

[Pete]

Thanks for the replies everyone :clap:
It does look like they are unsuitable really which is a shame but I'm glad I asked for advice :thumbup: .
I,ve got quite a bit of bogwood in the tanks and they would probably injure themselves on that .
Sounds like a 400 litre tank may not be large enough for very large active fish like that
I will probaly get some more striped barbs instead
they seem to do well in this tank being vegetarians, they eat the bits of veg from when the Panaque is feeding
Pete

 

[Warborg]

I love Bala sharks and have had many in the past but as mentioned they get scared too much