And they said cherry barbs were a peaceful, community fish

[Gypsum]

My experience with cherry barbs has been... not that. They moved out of their first home with me because they were fin nipping the longfin bristlenose. They moved in with otos, pygmy corys, and killis. But the males were harassing the little corys and the killifish, so they moved into a 110L tank with a Bolivian ram. I just added a shoal of green laser corys to that tank, and the biggest male barb has been aggressively chasing corys. Those corys will be 2.5 to 3" long, but they aren't now.

Our male to female barb ratio was off. We had four males and three females because a barb we thought was a female turned out to be male. I've bought two more females, which will hopefully reduce aggression. I've also bought more plants, which will hopefully give the corys more cover. Don't know what else I can do, short of moving fish around again, but I really don't have another place I can put the corys or barbs. And the problem is just one barb. The other three males are behaving.

 

[CassCats]

Id rehome the aggressor and keep only 1-2 males. Then add more females.

My shoal of cherries stay very polite, even with my cories in the tank and the long finned skirt tetras. Got 1 male 5 females

 

[vanalisa]

Id rehome the aggressor and keep only 1-2 males. Then add more females.

My shoal of cherries stay very polite, even with my cories in the tank and the long finned skirt tetras. Got 1 male 5 females

Great advice, that male has plenty of things to do without bothering with the other species.

 

[mbsqw1d]

My experience with cherry barbs has been... not that. They moved out of their first home with me because they were fin nipping the longfin bristlenose. They moved in with otos, pygmy corys, and killis. But the males were harassing the little corys and the killifish, so they moved into a 110L tank with a Bolivian ram. I just added a shoal of green laser corys to that tank, and the biggest male barb has been aggressively chasing corys. Those corys will be 2.5 to 3" long, but they aren't now.

Our male to female barb ratio was off. We had four males and three females because a barb we thought was a female turned out to be male. I've bought two more females, which will hopefully reduce aggression. I've also bought more plants, which will hopefully give the corys more cover. Don't know what else I can do, short of moving fish around again, but I really don't have another place I can put the corys or barbs. And the problem is just one barb. The other three males are behaving.

Having a similar experience with my Odessa and cories. I need to see if I can pinpoint the main offender of the barbs. Also my m/f ratios are out as I was supplied with what appears to be 10 male and 3 female

 

[Gypsum]

The barb seems to have been granted a reprieve. The two additional females are keeping him busy, and the corys are quickly learning that if they don't run when he tries to chase them, he swims off pretty quickly. This is good because OH was very reluctant to rehome. The barbs were our first fish and we've repeatedly tried to kill them with fish-in cycles, the first one unplanned because we didn't know about cycling (whoops) and we gave them ammonia poisoning. One died. The rest became super barbs. The males are huge and bright red.

 

[primsloaches16]

I can definitely relate! When I first got my cherry barbs, I got what was 5 males and 2 females.... overnight, a male had killed another male. I instantly took 3 of the 4 males back (The one I kept is my boy Tiger, who only has one eye and is so spunky) I recently got 2 more females and one male, and with 2 males to 4 females, they are nice and mellow again! Sometimes Tiger and Starburst (My 2 males) will display their fins at each other, Tiger being the more dominant of the two, but they have plenty of space and are cohabiting great!

 

[kwi]

I'm considering a group of 6 Cherrys, best to ensure 1 get 2male and 4female then?

 

[mbsqw1d]

Interesting! It does sound as though I could do with adding more females.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I’m down to 3 males. They’ve lived together for over a year. They take turns being the aggressor. Never pick on the other fish, just each other. I just ordered 5 more but couldn’t choose male or female. If I only get one or two females, they are in trouble. Can’t find any locally right now.

 

[mbsqw1d]

Is there any problem with adding new barbs to existing groups? Especially if the new ones are juvenile?

 

[AquaBarb]

I had 6 cherry barbs (4f,2m) for around a year then upped the group with the same ratio to 12 and all was well.
No aggression whats so ever

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Is there any problem with adding new barbs to existing groups? Especially if the new ones are juvenile?

Especially since your new ones are also young and haven't been an established group for years or anything, I think the sooner you do it, the easier it'll be. Especially if once you get the new ones, you catch the current group, remove them to buckets and do some re-arranging to change up territories, then add them all back together with the new ones at the same time, or put the new ones in first then the old ones. I think @Byron has suggested that before, but please correct me if I'm wrong and misquoting you Byron.

 

[Gypsum]

When adding females, I've just chucked them straight in. Never had any problem. I got my first lot when they were too young to sex, and I ended up with three males and two females. Wanting to increase my female population, I bought two more, which Iooked female at the time. One of them wasn't. But they seemed to live with this not-ideal ratio for a while. My big male's aggression towards the corys suggests it wasn't great, hence buying two more females (who better stay that way).

 

[Byron]

Is there any problem with adding new barbs to existing groups? Especially if the new ones are juvenile?

Assuming this is the cherry barbs, this shouldn't be a problem. It can be a disaster with some more aggressive species of shoaling fish, including some of the other species of barbs. Post #12 also relevant, though this may or may not work, again depending upon the species.

 

[primsloaches16]

I added my 2 females and 1 male to my existing group of three with no problem!