Balantiocheilos melanopterus, otherwise known as the silver, tricolor, or bala shark has been added IUCN's redlist as an endangered species in it's natural habitat (see clasification below: EN A1 a&c).

ENDANGERED (EN) - A taxon is endangered when it is not Critically Endangered but is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future
A) Population reduction in the form of the following:
1) An observed, estimated, inferred or suspected reduction of at least 50% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on (and specifying) any of the following:
a) direct observation
c) a decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat.

but as you can see from any petstore wall, it's doing just fine in the farms. so just a bit of info...

oh, and a pic of one of my babies in her natural habitat (the output current from the filter) you can see her friend's dorsal as he just swims out of the shot.

Oh no poor things!!! Does capture have anything to do with the decline in the wild? I've seen baby balas going for under $5 at chainstores lately Stupid petshops....stupid uneducated fish buyers.

Hurry and learn how to breed them in captivity and save the world!

overfishing is one of the causes i found in different articles, but i'm not sure if that's for the pet trade or not (since most of the balas in the pet stores are not wild caught).

and breeding has never been done before in an aquarium. the only time they breed in captivity is in large outdoor ponds rivaling a river and with tons of hormone injections; neither of which i'm willing to try... well, maybe the large outdoor pond river thing i'm gonna get right to work on that.

Ohh okay I understand the breeding thing now. Hormone injections sound kind of scary... That would be so awesome to have an outdoor river thing! You could have it inside a greenhouse to keep the tropical temperatures stable

Oh that is awful. I really do love balas and think they are a very misunderstood fish. Like the oscars in the otehr post I just answered, so many people buy them as babies and think, I'll buy a bigger tank when they outgrow this one. They are just so skittish and easily startled that I have seen them jump out of smaller tanks or knock themselves out when they get nervous.

They are so beautiful when they are full sized, too. I just love them!

Oh that is sad. I hope that an effort is made to preserve this species

yea, they are amazing fish. i'm quite keen on 'em

i was really lucky to get mine from quite possibly the best fish store i've ever been too. the guys there really worked w/ me w/ the balas, making sure i knew that these fish WOULD get big, would jump, are very skiddish, could not ever be put in a 10 gallon, could not stay in my 36 for long, need to be in a school (but said 2 would be better to start with) etc etc. they even tried to talk me out of getting them, i guess they thought i was too young to handle it or something, but my two babies are doin just fine.

so when i upgrade, i'm gonna take all my new knowledge of their natural habitat and make the tank as close to that as possible, then get 3 new baby balas (i'm lookin at 125-150) and get a proper school of 'em. i'm just thinking about that.

Oooh, that will be a great looking tank! I love when people are able to have schools of the really big fish, like they are meant to be!