Rainbow shark "eating" my striped raphael catfish! NEED HELP!!!

divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
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Jan 10, 2014
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On Monday I introduced my sailfin pleco and striped raphael catfish into my 75 gallon from my 30 tall. Pleco took it great, in heaven with the driftwood. The raphael on the other hand....not so much. He hasn't eaten since I introduced him (which is odd for him), he comes out during the day to go on rampages and shred the tank (banging his head off the glass) and since yesterday my rainbow shark has been eating slime coat off him! I actually have my arm in the tank now keeping the shark away! I don't know what to do he does it NONSTOP and the catfish just takes it not moving at all! Nothing is going right with the raphael since I put him in there! What should I do? I feel at this rate he could die from lack of slime coat by morning!
 
Crazy mike

Crazy mike

Fire Eel
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Sep 22, 2012
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divemaster99 said:
On Monday I introduced my sailfin pleco and striped raphael catfish into my 75 gallon from my 30 tall. Pleco took it great, in heaven with the driftwood. The raphael on the other hand....not so much. He hasn't eaten since I introduced him (which is odd for him), he comes out during the day to go on rampages and shred the tank (banging his head off the glass) and since yesterday my rainbow shark has been eating slime coat off him! I actually have my arm in the tank now keeping the shark away! I don't know what to do he does it NONSTOP and the catfish just takes it not moving at all! Nothing is going right with the raphael since I put him in there! What should I do? I feel at this rate he could die from lack of slime coat by morning!
Click to expand...
Either remove the Raphael or the shark.one of them has to go


Sent from my VS840 4G
 
divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
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I turned the light off and he hasn't bugged him again since. The shark however is sort of "waiting" under the bridge for when the cat comes back. The raphael is under a narrow piece of driftwood on the opposite side of the tank.
 
Aquanero

Aquanero

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It is very unusual for a raphael to come out during the day to swim wildly and bang against the glass as you discribed. Rainbow sharks can become very agressive too, so it not liking the new addition is not so unusual. I would suspect somthing is off with the water, can you post perameters ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph etc.? It would also be usful to know what the parameters are in the 30 they came out of. You also need to build or buy a suitable hiding place for the raphael a log/tube or somthing big enough for it to hide in and feel secure. Why not put the Raphael back into the 30 for now.
 
divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
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Jan 10, 2014
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Aquanero said:
It is very unusual for a raphael to come out during the day to swim wildly and bang against the glass as you discribed. Rainbow sharks can become very agressive too, so it not liking the new addition is not so unusual. I would suspect somthing is off with the water, can you post perameters ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph etc.? It would also be usful to know what the parameters are in the 30 they came out of. You also need to build or buy a suitable hiding place for the raphael a log/tube or somthing big enough for it to hide in and feel secure. Why not put the Raphael back into the 30 for now.
Click to expand...
I took him out of the 30 because it is WAY to small for him at this point. I have some four inch pvc on me but that might be a little big for him to feel secure. There is some other every good spots in there for him to hide as well (none of which he like). The shark isn't bothering him now though and only seems to when it's lights on. In fact he seems rather scared of the raphael right now!
 
divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
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Jan 10, 2014
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He has been doing it unrelentlessly today so I have him in a 10" net and am going to my LFS now to get either a quarantine section or tank divider. Unfortunately he will be in whatever I get for the next 2 weeks until I can take him back to where I got him. Will he survive that long? I'll be sure to feed him but I could not stand the idea of him killing my favorite fish.

i guess I'm now in the market for another TWO bottom feeders next time I go to my LFS to get the last batch of fish for my 75.
 
divemaster99

divemaster99

Dovii
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Jan 10, 2014
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I had him in a breeder net for the past 3 days and it was depressing me to see him laying motionless on his side so I figured I'd give him a chance for redemption. He swimming around vert fast in short jolts now as he gets used to the main tank again. If he bugs the raphael again I'll requarantine him until I can take him back if he doesn't then I'll keep him.

does anyone know whether fish or even more specifically rainbow sharks have a part of their brain that let's them rationalize? For example if he keeps bugging him and I keep quarantining him for a few days length will he eventually learn that bugging the catfish=quarantine or are they not smart enough?
 
Crazy mike

Crazy mike

Fire Eel
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A fish such as that won't rationalize why you remove it. It won't associate the punishment with the action.

Sent from my VS840 4G
 
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