Red-Tailed Black Shark
Name: Epalzeorhynchus bicolor
Size TankpHTemp Origin: Thailand (Me Nam R.)
12 cm 200 L 7.5 26°C The Epalzeorhynchus bicolor (formerly Labeo bicolor) is a popular fish added to community and asian biotope aquariums. It has a pitch black body color and only the tail is red. When healthy, the colors look so great that it can easily be confused with a marine fish. As with other Labeo's, it tends to be intolerant towards its own kind (which makes breeding these fish extremely difficult). Contributed by Marcos Avila My sister has always been a fan of red-tailed black sharks, so I got her one for her birthday last year. He lived in our 68 gal community tank with some tetras, gouramis, cories and livebearers. He was only 2.5" long and very small when I bought him, but after about 7 months, he'd grown over 5" long and filled out a lot. He was one magnificent fish! But he was also one nasty fish and when he wasn't hiding, he would chase his tank mates around mercylessly. He even caused some injuries resulting in deaths. My sister did some phoning around and managed to land Wilcy a home in the Vancouver Aquarium! So now our community can swim in peace, and we can rest assured that Wilcy is getting the best of care! Contributed by Audra My red tailed shark mercilessly harassed and mutilated every other fish in the tank until I moved it to another tank full of obnoxious tige ...