Bala Shark: The Ten Best Tank Mates for a Happy Tank in 2024!

These large, fascinating fish are a delight to watch as they prowl about your tank! If you’re interested, I go into much greater detail on their care in my Bala Shark Care Guide!

If you’re dedicated to designing a 300+ gallon community tank for large fish like these then they make fantastic tank mates. They are also schooling fish, so you’ll want a small group, so they can leisurely patrol the mid and upper water regions. As carnivores, they eat anything from earthworms to pellets, so make sure you’ve plenty of food on hand because they grow quickly!

They are actually sold as food fish in much of Southeast Asia and even abroad! Have you ever seen Swai in the grocery store’s frozen seafood section? You were looking at imported Iridescent Shark fillets!

Silver Dollars are members of the family Characidae, making them relatives of the more familiar Neon Tetra and other characins! However they are much more closely related to the fearsome Piranhas and have similarly large teeth! Unlike their flesh-eating cousins, Silver Dollars are entirely vegetarian. But they can be a hassle if you enjoy live plants because they will eat any sort of greenery. Even tough, bitter plants like Anubas and Java Fern will be mowed down by them.

Silver Dollars are also schooling, making a 75 gallon+ tank a requirement for a group. Fortunately, Bala Sharks also need spacious tanks, making them natural companions!

Some good Cichlids to pair with Bala Sharks include Oscars (Astronotus ocellatus), Jack Dempseys (Rocio octofasciata), Convict Cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata), and other semi-aggressive species. Only keep them with truly aggressive cichlids in tanks larger than 150 gallons. Gentler cichlids are an even better choice, including Severums (Heros efasciatus) and Blue Acaras (Andinoacara pulcher)!

Since most Cichlids do love to dig, make sure that your plants are either weighted down or plastic. And should they spawn, you may need to move the new parents because even gentler species become very defensive around their eggs and fry.

Instead, the Blue Gourami (Trichopodus trichopterus) and Pearl Gourami (Trichopodus leerii) are two medium-sized species that are hardy, easy to find, and long lived. And if you’re into mega-fish, the Giant Gourami (Osphronemus goramy) is a massive, semi-aggressive, herbivorous gourami capable of growing over 2 feet long! They are also said to be extremely personable and even come in a delightful pink color!

While they have an exotic appearance Rainbowfish are quite hardy, thriving in slightly acidic to slightly alkaline conditions (pH 6.5-7.5). They also accept a wide range of prepared and fresh foods. But fresh and live invertebrates are their favorites, including bloodworms and brine shrimp.

When choosing Rainbowfish for Bala Shark tank mates we want to stick with the medium to large sized species. These include the Bosemani Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia boesemani), which averages around 4 inches and the stunning Red Rainbowfish (Glossolepis incisus), which reaches 6 to 7 inches. Rainbowfish are entirely peaceful and offer splashes of color that the Bala Shark lacks!

Clown Loaches do school, so buy as many as you can and raise them together. These fish are large but very gentle and have mouths too tiny to eat small fish. They prefer rooting along a sandy aquarium bottom for worms and other invertebrates. Clown Loaches also enjoy pellets sized for their small mouths and flakes!

Warm temperatures of 78-84℉ and neutral to acidic water chemistry (pH 5.0-7.0) not only boosts their color and health but also promotes spawning behavior. Angelfish are difficult to spawn normally but very easy to care for! Just provide them with plenty of protein-rich foods, pellets small enough for them, and spacious aquariums that are 40 gallons or larger!

Should they decide to spawn you’ll see your Angelfish pair off and deposit their eggs on broad leaved plants like Amazon Swords. But even when spawning they are very mild mannered for cichlids and won’t molest your Bala Sharks or any of their other tank mates!

Many of these tetras can be fin nippers with certain tank mates. Don’t keep them with bettas, guppies, and other fish with long, flowing fins, as they may find them too tempting to resist. But the size, speed, and normal finnage of Bala Sharks makes them excellent tank mates.

Tetras are found almost exclusively in tropical conditions and soft, acidic water chemistries. They tend to be difficult to breed unless you perfectly replicate their natural environment but otherwise easy to care for.

When kept as a small group, Tetras tend to nip at each other, occasionally squabbling over the small territories they create that shift borders with each day. Provide them with plenty of fake or live plants for them to feel secure and you’ll always have a show to watch with a tank full of tetras!

Harlequin Rasboras are ideal community fish because they are just the right size to get along with the vast majority of community fish. They have a bold, purplish black hatchet and faint red and silver tones that are eye-catching, particularly when kept as a group. Place them in a shady, well planted aquarium and you may even see them breed!

Harlequin Rasboras are actually one of the oldest fish in the tropical fish trade. They were first introduced in the early 1900’s. You may also see two closely related species sold as Harlequin Rasboras but the original is much chunkier and has a thicker black bar than its cousins!

There are quite a few species of Corydoras available in the hobby and the majority are easy to keep and breed when provided with warm temperatures and soft, acidic water chemistry. They are also partial air breathers and will occasionally make a mad dash to the surface to swallow a bubble of air to supplement their gill function!

In this way they act as canaries in the coal mine. If your Corydoras do this several times an hour it’s a sign your aquarium needs better aeration because the oxygen levels are too low!

Have Any Questions About Potential Bala Shark Tank Mates?

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