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When the picture at the top of this page was taken, there were over 150 Red Tail Sharks in the aquarium. When they live together in large numbers in a large aquarium, they get along well with each other. They quarrel but almost never hurt one another. But if you have less than six sharks in the same aquarium, they'll begin to quarrel, and the weakest ones will be miserable. So if you keep Red Tail Sharks, keep one or keep several, but don't keep just a few together. This guideline is true for most aggressive fish. Red Tail Sharks are beautiful, energetic, hardy, and rather aggressive to other Sharks. Red Tail Sharks are usually more aggressive than Rainbow Sharks. Click here for information about Rainbow Sharks. Most sharks are not aggressive to other types of fish. So sharks make good tank mates for many types of fish. But it's best to have just one Red Tail Shark or one Rainbow Shark in an aquarium, or more than six, but not just a few. 

Appropriate Home
An aquarium with at least 20 gallon of water, an exterior power filter with a BIO-Wheel, a maximum of 1/4 inch of gravel, and an aquarium heater adjusted to keep the water between 76 and 80 degrees F. Eventually Red Tail Sharks will need an aquarium with at least 40 gallons of water. Click here for more about warm water aquariums.

All Sharks are jumpers, so the aquarium that they live in must have a cover with no holes. Click here for more information about aquarium covers.

Red Tail Sharks need a piece of pipe or a cave. The pieces of pipe, shown in the pictures on this page, were cut from a long pieces of pipe that we bought at Home Depot. Before we put the pieces of pipe in our aquariums, we cleaned them in warm water. Next we tested them in a small aquarium with a few fish to be sure they weren't toxic.

Finally we put the cleaned pieces of pipe in our large aquariums with lots of fish. You might prefer to buy an ornamental cave or rocks that are labeled for use in aquariums. Such caves and rocks are available in most stores that sell pet fish and in some online stores like the ones that advertise on this web site. Click here for more about how to avoid contaminating your aquarium.

Recommended Diet
Floating flake food. Perhaps some sinking food pellets but be careful because uneaten food will soon spoil and pollute the water. Be sure to always use a small net to remove uneaten food after about 10 minutes. Click here for more about feeding fish. I feed these fish a few Black Worms every other day. Click here for more about Black Worms.

Compatibility
Only one Red Tail Shark or Rainbow Shark or Pink Rainbow Shark to an aquarium, or many, but not just a few. Otherwise, the strongest Shark will make the others miserable. All Gouramis, all Barbs including Tinfoil Barbs, all Danios, all Rainbows, a school of Bala Sharks, and  a school of Clown Loaches. Click here to read more about several other groups of compatible fish.

Size and Life Span
Red Tail Sharks live for several years and grow slowly to a length of 5" and rarely even longer.