I'm going to be setting up a 30 gal tank in september which will contain 3 bala sharks. (i know that i'll need a bigger tank in a couple years). But i wanted to add a couple tank mates along with the sharks. I was hoping on adding golden barbs but i would also like a small school of neon tetra. Is it compatible to have both barbs and tetras in the same tank? Also, any ideas as to a kind of snail that would thrive in these conditions?

Well, Bala sharks can grow pretty big, as you probably know already. Never really underestimate the size of fishes mouths, and I do not suggest neon tetras, as they don't get as large as balas. I strongly suggest to not overstock or plan to overstock from the beginning, as balas can get pretty aggressive if too blatantly overstocked. I suggest you dedicate the tank to smaller tropicals, in which you could have more swimming about.

I have no experience with sharks so I'm not offering advice on that matter, but I've always been told that tetras and barbs don't mix, sorry

i had bala sharks just recently and they grew to a pretty decent size, but for the size of them, their mouths were tiny, even if they wanted to eat a tank mate i think it would be hard for them to do, but their very peaceful....they would chase each other around occasionally around meal times but they never went after tank mates.

I've done a lot of research on the sharks... I'm more concerned about it's tank mates getting alone with each other rather than with the balas. I'm open to other considerations. I was thinking of maybe having platties and neons with them. However, its been awhile since ive owned platties and I can remember if they would be too slow around feeding time.

If

1) i wanted to have golden barbs, what other kind of fish would go well with it and the bala

2) if i wanted neon tetra, what kind of fish would work well with them and the sharks.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks

I haven't kept barbs, but neons get along with any other sort of tetra as well as guppies (unless you happen to get some nippy neons, which is a bit rare) and dwarf gouramis. I think platties could work as well

Here's a very general guide about fish compatibility: Fish Compatibility Chart

A quote straight from fishlore.com's bala shark page: "They are mostly peaceful but may eat smaller fish such as neon tetras when they [the sharks] reach a large enough size." There's also quite a few comments on that same website about how people's bala sharks ate all their neon tetras.

I wouldn't put neons in with your sharks.

I'm not sure about keeping barbs, I've never had them. Overall, I would say that it might be best if you kept just the sharks by themselves in the tank, until you get a larger tank. I know how it is, having a small tank and wanting to keep a lot of fish, but you have to take the fish's health into consideration.

You have to remember, my sharks will only be 1.5 - 2 inches when i buy them so i dont think having them eat any other fish is possible. Once they get big enough (and I know they will get that big quick) i will have a tank to move them to. But for now i can't see having 3 types of fish overpopulating a 33 gal.

as of this moment,

3 baby bala sharks
4 platties
8-9 neon tetra

However, that will most likely change as there are so many options plus i have 4 months to think about it and the time it takes to grow some plants.

I had gold barbs for a long time and they were peaceful with everyone except my cory cats--sometimes they would nip the cories fins. I had the barbs with platies, swordtails, rosy reds, serpae tetras, red eye tetras, blue tetras and zebra danios. Oh, I forgot--one of the blue tetras hated my gold barbs and chased them all the time. The other blues never bothered them so that was kinda strange!

By the way, platies are NOT slow at feeding time! In fact they are very fast and need to be with other fast fish who can compete for food.