bullying of new arrivals

Question
QUESTION: Hi Will,

I recently inherited a large (50 gallon) tropical freshwater tank with a large silver dollar, some neon tetras, a siamese fighting fish and what i was told was a 'shark' but looks more like a small catfish/bottom feedery thing with a chocolate brown body and orange/red tail and fins. They all got along fine until I bought some corys, loaches, 2 smaller dollar fish and some extra tetras... the sharky thing has been chasing the new arrivals constantly for the last 2 days,
I haven't seen any actual damage but they are having to keep moving to get away from him and seem a little stressed, especially the dollars.

I'm very new to fishkeeping, so sorry if this is a dumb question, but will he settle down in time or should I be considering getting rid of him? I'd also thought of confining him in a plastic bottle with holes within the tank, as a kind of 'time out' - do fish respond to that kind of thing?

Many thanks for your help!

Lucy

ANSWER: Hi Lucy,

The sharky thing is called a rainbow or ruby shark.

I have 5 of them in different tanks because they hate each other.

My big shark would never chase anything but his food and the other ones attack my fingers. my point being you have a normally agressive one however, sharks are not ok to go with loaches or corys.

Let me know what you choose to do.
-Will

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Will,

thanks for your feedback, it's good to know what he is! I guess if this is normal aggression I should get rid of him - though he doesn't seem to be bothering the loaches and corys any more, just the dollars - but I'd just like to know if my idea with the bottle would be ok until I can find a new home for him? And if not, how about a bucket?

Thanks again for your speedy response!

best
Lucy

Answer
Hi Lucy,

If he's not bullying the loaches you have a tame one. He should let up on the dollars soon.

only isolate him if he does some very serious damage. I personally wouldn't use the bottle, but if push comes to shove, i'd use the bucket.

-Will