25 Gallon Tank How Many Tiger Barbs

[screamingdonkey]

Unless the dimensions of the 25g are very long and wide, I don't think the fish will really be happy. They ARE schooling fish, but that's only when they're frightened. Otherwise they need their own territories.

I would respectfully disagree with this statement.

From my experience they shoal most of the time. Admittedly, they are not as tightly shoaling as some tetras, e.g. neons, but they will swim together at all times of the day and under any circumstances. Indeed, there aren't any fish in my main tank that the TBs would be scared of, so they are NOT shoaling because of this.

I would also suggest that the volume of the tank has been undercooked here.
My calculations make a 100x40x40cm tank have a volume of 160L.
With substrate in the equation, you're probably looking at an actual volume of 140-145L of water.
In my opinion, this is enough to support a shoal of 10-12 TBs, providing filtration is adequate and maintenance is kept up to a decent standard.

Tiger barbs are very active/watchable and not as evil as some people make them out to be.
Due to the fact that they are so lively, I personally would go with something a bit more docile on the bottom - perhaps a small group of 3 or 4 corydoras - so that the tank doesn't look so 'busy'.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Yeah, I just redid the volume in inches - 40 by 15 by 15. It calculates to 38 us gallons. So it should be fine. Maybe you could even go up to 15 tiger barbs. For the bottom, I also think a school of 6-8 medium-sized cories would be nice.

 

[Alistriwen]

How many fish you can keep in a given tank is based on two things basically:

1) Size of the fish
2) How often you're willing to change the water.

The lfs youre getting these fish from probably has better than 40 of the fish in a 20 or so gallon tank, miraculously they defy the inch to gallon rule, why? Regular water changes. Naturally if tiger barbs grew to 4 or 5 inches at full size then the tank would quickly become overcrowded but that isnt the case.

If you can only commit to 25% weekly water changes then your 20 gallon would be ample space for 15 or so as long as they arent oversized. Keep up with the water changes, dont over feed and pay attention to what your fish's behavior is telling you and they will be fine. You might even be able to get away with adding some other fish like bottom feeders. I have a 33 gallon with 7 neons, 6 harlqeuin rasboras and 6 Bolivian rams, plus a horde of ghost shrimp and the fish are not only fine, they are thriving. They eat well, they have good water and they all get along.

My fry growouts have even more fish in them, (even accounting for their small size) but theyre fine because we change the water every other day. The only thing I will say is that with a planted tank water changes can be a hassle if you dont want to disturb your setup so trying to keep the number of water changes you have to do to a minimum is probably a great idea.

 

[n3ont3tra]

The lfs youre getting these fish from probably has better than 40 of the fish in a 20 or so gallon tank, miraculously they defy the inch to gallon rule, why? Regular water changes. Naturally if tiger barbs grew to 4 or 5 inches at full size then the tank would quickly become overcrowded but that isnt the case.

Sorry, but it's not always because of regular water changes. It's because in most lfs's, all tanks are connected. Much more water volume to dilute ammonia and nitrites, and also, the fish sell fast.