Bala shark talk! When does a 2" inch bala shark get to about 12" inch?

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NeonFlux

NeonFlux

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2010
270
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Los Angeles
:cool: Just curious 'cause I just got a couple more medium baby sized ones (2 and a half inches) just to create a little school and give my lonely 3" and half inch bala shark named bala in my 250 gallon tank some buddies. They are currently in a quarantine and I'm checking up on them.. can't wait to add them! But I'll definitely first be growing them out in my rainbowfish tank though until they reach a pretty good decent, ungobbable size.. My oscar's in the 250 gallon, and man he's GROWING FAST. I might have to take out bala that is in at 3 and half inches.. :O Balas are REALLY quick and swift though, eh?? What do you guys think taking him out and as well as your experience on bala shark's growth rate.

What do you feed your bala sharks, what temps, size tanks you keep them in? How many ya got and what's your experience with them? Feel free to talk anything about bala sharks here pretty much. :D
 
Picture of them. Got them yesterday.

 
Also interested in growth rate - wondering if I can put them in my 700g with my juvenile cichlids or if they will get outgrown.
 
I wouldn't call two and a half inches medium size,not even three inches but anyway in my experience they are slow growers which is probably why we don't see too many large ones around.Just give them good quality food and clean water.
 
Well, they were sold to me as medium size at the LFS lol That's why I called them medium size..

True, I wouldn't call 2 and a half inch medium size either, of course haha. Medium size would be about 7 inches, imo.

Thanks for sharing the info, krichard.
 
I got 2 balas at about 2.5-3" at the very beginning of 2010, and then 2 more at about 3-4" maybe 2 months later, and after about 2 years, the smallest was around 8.5" and the largest was 9.75". I would guess that it should take about 3 years to get them to 12"+. Not unbearably slow, imo.

My balas ate mainly Hikari pellets (Cichlid Gold and Cichlid Staple), as well as various frozen foods (bloodworms, tilapia, market shrimp, etc.). Temp: ~80F. Tank size: 225 gallons (72x24x30"). The biggest thing I noticed while growing out my balas was the gradual change in their temperament as they get bigger/older. I wasn't as fond of them when they were young and skittish, but as they got larger, they became much more laid back and pleasant to keep.
 
NeonFlux said:
Well, they were sold to me as medium size at the LFS lol That's why I called them medium size..

True, I wouldn't call 2 and a half inch medium size either, of course haha. Medium size would be about 7 inches, imo.

Thanks for sharing the info, krichard.
Click to expand...
Yeah some shops are funny that way as far as describing sizes lol.I was recently growing out a few balas in a tank with a few other fish and one of the other fish outpaced the balas and grew big enough to eat them one by one.
 
Beware, they like to sift sand in their mouth if you have a dnd substrate, lost one at 5inches from finding a left over piece of gravel, pretty nice fish though. Not really food theifs from what I noticed.
 
:WHOA: I'll keep that in mind, thanks, lardie.

:D Oh and thanks for sharing your experience and inputs, jclyde and the rest of you guys. I'll see if i can get mine to take pellets and some frozen foods. For some reason bala doesn't take pellets readily though. I'm gonna see if I can train my small bala sharks and bala to take pellets better.
 
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