Cherry Barb Help

[rebrn]

Hello, I got some Cherry Barbs for my tank, and I already know I made 2 mistakes, they will be rectified soon. The first mistake I made was I got 4 males and 4 females, I have since learned that I really need to have a 2:1 female:male ratio. Also, I have them in my 12 gallon, and although they seem fine, my personal opinion is that they need more room, they spend the majority of the day "surfing" on the filter current, or swimming against the bubbles from the air stone. I do plan to get 4 more females, and move the whole lot (12 in total) to my 55 gallon when it is completed cycling (should be in 4 days time).

Now for my question: They seem to be chasing eachother around a lot, not necessarily one sex chasing the other, I have seen females chase both males and females and same for the males. They appear to be nipping at each other, but have not noticed any damage/injury as of yet, but keeping a close eye on that. I am assuming this is them working out the "pecking order" for the school. Just wanted to be sure that it is not something more serious. Also, do you think going ahead and adding the 4 additional females now (meaning before the move to the larger tank) will help this, or will it just make it worse, (more fish but not more room)?
Also, this chasing behaviour, does NOT occur during feeding, but will occur anyother time of day/night.

Thanks

 

[drobbyb]

Sounds like normal behavior to me. They are just getting a feel for each other, like you said, working out the pecking order.

 

[rebrn]

thanks that is what I thought, just wanted to be sure though. I guess I just thought that should have already been done since they were in the same tank at the LFS, but I guess new home means new pecking order