# MATING SHARKS??



## snakelover

Hi I have to rainbow sharks that i bought last week, and i think that they are mating? They are rubbing up agaist each other, i will attach a video soon. Is it mating?


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## mike515

very unlikely.

Rainbows along with similar fish are very hard to breed in captivity.


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## snakelover

soz about quility


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## Kenorsanc

Dosent work try again


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## snakelover

http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/...ion=view&current=RainbowSharksMatingMaybe.flv


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## Blazey

the first one worked for me  shame i know nothing about fish but it looks interesting to watch. Maybe they fancied a dance.


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## mike515

I had red tail black sharks (a closely related fish to rainbows), do this and they weren't breeding. I think its a dominance thing, but im not too sure.

But like i said rainbows, Red tails and similar fish are notoriously hard to breed. I'm not sure if its been done in a home aquarium yet. Theres ben claims of it but all have been unproved i think do to no proof


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## optical illusion

I had bala sharks that did that all the time, as well as some other species. I think it is a dominance thing as nothing ever came of it.


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## Snakes r grreat

I can see why you think their mating, but it is a dominance issue. They are too small for a start. Rainbow sharks or ruby sharks as they are also known dont tend to get along with each other too well if you have a couple, especially when they mature. Keep an eye on them because one will probably end up dominating the other, and the dominated one may not do too well.


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## k_duffy

*breeding IS SUCCESFULL IN HOMe AQUAIRIUMS!!!!!!!*



mike515 said:


> I had red tail black sharks (a closely related fish to rainbows), do this and they weren't breeding. I think its a dominance thing, but im not too sure.
> 
> But like i said rainbows, Red tails and similar fish are notoriously hard to breed. I'm not sure if its been done in a home aquarium yet. Theres ben claims of it but all have been unproved i think do to no proof



a gentman who lives near me has a 6ft tank and breeds
Rainbow sharks
black sharks
red tail sharks
SUCCESSFULLY 

he uses a string mop head for them to lay little blue eggs in them (they get kinda glue to the strings) 

i am currently trying to mate my rainbow shark and albione rainbow sharl!


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## Graylord

k_duffy said:


> a gentman who lives near me has a 6ft tank and breeds
> Rainbow sharks
> black sharks
> red tail sharks
> SUCCESSFULLY
> 
> he uses a string mop head for them to lay little blue eggs in them (they get kinda glue to the strings)
> 
> i am currently trying to mate my rainbow shark and albione rainbow sharl!


I think we would need some further evidence Black Sharks for one would be a minimum 12 to 16 inches long and at least three years old before they would breed ,they would fill the six foot tank alone.( this is a fish that can reach 18 inches and up to 24 inches or more.

Also why would you want to cross a normal rainbow shark with your albino ,nothing new will come of it just a mix of normals and albino`s thats presuming you can replicate the seasonal idiosynchrosies of the Mekong and it`s tributaries.

I believe ,though i stand corrected if anyone can enlighten me that many of the "Labeo " type species are stripped of eggs and milt and that`s how it`s done or alternatively the females are injected with hormones.

This is done by huge organizations not Mr Smith of 2 Festive Road ,Clapham in his 2 foot tank.


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## xyra

k_duffy said:


> a gentman who lives near me has a 6ft tank and breeds
> Rainbow sharks
> black sharks
> red tail sharks
> SUCCESSFULLY
> 
> he uses a string mop head for them to lay little blue eggs in them (they get kinda glue to the strings)
> 
> i am currently trying to mate my rainbow shark and albione rainbow sharl!


Interesting, this must be pretty unusual, unless he is telling you tall tales.

Black sharks tend to dislike to share, so I would have though smaller species would have been destroyed by them already. Presumably the blacks are near beginning of sexual matority and aren't huge yet? (don't know what size they reach maturity) WOuld be worth watching for aggression as they get big... they have a bit of a tendancity to kill everything in sight as they grow up!

Red tails have been bred before in captivity if i remember rightly though.

Quite an unusual feat, if it's true I expect some of the fishkeeping mags would like to run an article on that tank!

Edit: as has been said, you won't get anything unusual between normal and albino breeding, and as i believe albino is a recessive trait, unless you have a het albino, all the offspring will be normals. I'm not trying to put you off as it would still be a great challenge though and a fantastic result if they do breed, good luck!


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## Heppy

xyra said:


> Red tails have been bred before in captivity if i remember rightly though.


Red tailed black sharks are asumed extint in the wild so to some extent have defintely being bred in captivity wheter this is in a hobbyist aquarium im not sure, more likely farmed in outdoor pools or hormone induced


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## xyra

Heppy said:


> Red tailed black sharks are asumed extint in the wild so to some extent have defintely being bred in captivity wheter this is in a hobbyist aquarium im not sure, more likely farmed in outdoor pools or hormone induced



Fair enough! I meant captive-bred in an aquarium by a hobbiest - I'm pretty sure i heard it has happened.


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## mike515

they are bred with hormone therapy or egg stripping.

Im still pretty sure that they haven't been bred in a hobbyists tank


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## xyra

mike515 said:


> they are bred with hormone therapy or egg stripping.
> 
> Im still pretty sure that they haven't been bred in a hobbyists tank


That sounds like a good challenge then


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## mike515

definately worth trying. It's a similar level to clown loach breeding at the moment. Someones just gotta find the right method


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## xyra

mike515 said:


> definately worth trying. It's a similar level to clown loach breeding at the moment. Someones just gotta find the right method


Only real reference I can find is in baensch aq. atlas 1;
"DEAKIN & MORRELL report success in breeding. Soft water was acidified with peat and kept at temporature between 79-82F (27-28C). Spawning took place in a rocky hollow and the fry hatched after two days"

So, soft water, piles of rocks, presumably a good size tank with relatively still water. One of my books has a photo of them being collected in the wild (presumably quite a old photo with their pretty uncertain current wild status, can't find the book at the moment so this is from memory), and it appeared to be a fairly shallow (3' ish) overgrown lake, so there probably wasn't much water flow there... Perhaps large quantities of floating plants as well...

Might have to try it one day


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## fisherking

pet or aquatic shops only sell male sharrks so i wouldnt think they are mating


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## xyra

fisherking said:


> pet or aquatic shops only sell male sharrks so i wouldnt think they are mating


I thought that they didn't show any sexual dimorphism, how would they know which ones to send? Or could they be like some fish that different temperatures of broods lead to different sex ratios


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## xyra

mike515 said:


> definately worth trying. It's a similar level to clown loach breeding at the moment. Someones just gotta find the right method



Just found this...

Difficult because of their aggressive behavior towards their own species. They are not bred often, although it has been in accomplished in peat filtered water with a pH of 6.8. Use dim light or no light. They spawn in rocky caves and fry hatch after 30 to 60 hours. The fry are free swimming after four days. Start feeding with small live foods. Their colors change from silvery to silvery brown, to brown and finally to black. The red tail develops after 7 to 10 weeks.

Cyprinds


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## mike515

xyra said:


> Just found this...
> 
> Difficult because of their aggressive behavior towards their own species. They are not bred often, although it has been in accomplished in peat filtered water with a pH of 6.8. Use dim light or no light. They spawn in rocky caves and fry hatch after 30 to 60 hours. The fry are free swimming after four days. Start feeding with small live foods. Their colors change from silvery to silvery brown, to brown and finally to black. The red tail develops after 7 to 10 weeks.
> 
> Cyprinds


cheers mate. I never knew that. I might have to give it a bash.


*starts reading article*


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