albino tinfoil barb?

Question
I have been trying to identify a fish that someone gave me.  It is a shimmery pearl color, has red eyes, reddish dorsal fin, ventral fins, and a forked tail, also reddish. It looks like a tinfoil barb from the few poor pictures I can find.  It is definitely not a Gourami, which is what I was told it was.  Right now it is only a couple of inches long, and is in a 6 gallon tank with 4 guppies, a redtailed shark, a glofish, and a pleco.  All pretty small for now.  Do you have any good pictures of a young albino one?  Is it possible this is what it is?  It was purchased in Florida from a local Petsupermarket, I believe.  Thanks!

Answer
Hi Kim;

I would suspect it's an "Albino Rainbow Shark", (aka "Ruby Shark" or aka "Redfin Shark"). They are in the same family as the tinfoil barbs but are not schooling fish like barbs are. They don't tolerate their own type so must be kept one per tank. Here is a link to profiles with photos of them (regular and albino have the same care and requirements, they're just different colors);

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/epal-fre.htm
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/281.htm
http://fish.mongabay.com/species/Epalzeorhynchus_frenatus.html

You should know that the redtail shark and the rainbow shark will get far too big for a little 6 gallon. They may kill your other fish because they become very territorial and aggressive. They each get to be over 5 inches long and need about a 30 gallon tank or larger.

Here are profile pages about redtailed sharks too;

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/264.htm
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/redshark.htm

I hope everything goes okay for them......

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins