Hello. I picked up a 120 Gallon All Glass Aquarium stand that was on clearance for $25 marked down from $260 at my local petco store. The stand and a small chip in the wooden door which is the reason for it being so cheap. I am going to eventually buy a 120 gallon fish tank. All of my local fish stores tell me that the rule for freshwater aquariums is 1 inch of fish for every gallon. I would like to get 3-5 bala sharks because they are schooling fish and a iridescent shark. I have heard of some crazy stories about the ID sharks being up to 4 feet long. So if I have 5 balas that eventually grow to 12 inches each and I have one ID shark that brings me to 108 inches of fish. I know that my ID shark will most likely only grow to 2 feet like everyone else but before I buy the fish I want to make sure I will not be killing them. Please let me know if this is fine or if I would be killing my fish. Thank you
Question about iridescent shark and bala sharks
- Thread starter jshep105
- Start date
No. Don't buy an iridescent shark. They're skittish, big and imo it's verging on animal abuse when they have scars on their bodies from bashing into the tank walls so much. A 4ft long fish can't turn around in an 18" tank...
The 1" rule is simply not right! There are good threads on this site dealing with stocking levels.....I do agree though....120 is a nice cichlid tank!! Skip the sharks!
Okay thank you for the feedback. I tried googling the tank size recommended for ID sharks and i saw 55 gallons minimum many times but I did not think that was right. So I decided to post a question here.
it's very hard to get an ID shark to grow more than 2.5 feet in captivity without a huge tank/pond!
But still, don't buy it because it can easy get up to 2 ft in about 2 years considering you get the fish when it was 4''!
It should be leave it in its natural ecosystem and don't bring it into the aquarium trade.
I've seen a few 4ft ID sharks before on a thread..
I've seen a few 4ft ID sharks before on a thread..
Yes Id sharks have no buisssiness in the aquarium trade They can and will reach 39 inches in captivity. They freak very easily and will have thier face all banged up. In the wild they are an open water fish that are found in large up to a 1000 schools. I had one years ago that I kept in an 8ftx8ft x4ft basement pond that I thought was 2 smalll for it. I finally donated it to the Toledo zoo and the only reason they excepted it is one of thier 4 large specimens just died at the time.
bala sharks should be more than ok in 120 gallons, also, have you looked at silver apollo sharks?
checkout roseline sharks. I have 4 in my 85 that are 7 years old and around 7 inches a piece. They have excellant color and swim all over the tank and apparentlly don't get really large. Very peaceful fish also.