Cherry barbs behaviour

[CxN]

Got a new 20g tank recently and its still not 100 pc cycled. But I read ammonia almost daily and do the water changes when I see even a slight spike. I have 5 cherry barbs. I absolutely love these little guys. Its been a week they are in there, but I can't be sure what they are doing is normal or signalling smething (Water paramters are constantly tested). Its a planted tank.

First of all, they all look a bit pale. Some have a bit of dark colour when looking from above but its probably normal. No signs of illness. Very very active and attack flakes when feeding. Also scavenge dead plant leaves a bit. The pale/washed out look was there from the store. So I am not sure if I have all females or 1-2 males too. I feel the LFS guy really wanted to offload them so he gave 2 free for the price of three. I don't mind at all. I am trying to give them a good home. If no males, I'll def add 1-2 later. But here's my bigger concern. They seem to chase each other a lot. Sometimes quite aggressively but no fin nipping. Is it territory building? I feel the weaker ones may be stressed out soon and become prone to diseases. Anyone experienced this with their newly introduced cherry barbs? Any kind of info on cherry barb behaviour in a new tank would be goldmine to me right now.

 

[fish48]

males are more colourful. females are more rounder and plumper,
depending on age and condition males don't always show their full colour in the first picture male with his full colour , second pic- male and female.
I find them to be very peaceful but like to keep them and a group of at least 10

 

[CxN]

Thanks Fish48. Here are a couple of photos. Quite hard to take pics given they are pretty active. I suspect they could be all washed out males looking at the aggression - but I'd love to know if you could spot at least one female based on these pics. I can't have all males- and certainly not 1-2 females with 3-4 males. If so, I need to return a few to the LFS.

 

[fish48]

in both pics the one at the bottom is female, the males always look at the best at spawning time

 

[threecharacters]

Fish tend to change their colors based on their surroundings. In a white, brightly light tank, the fish will appear whiter and more washed out. If you put a black background on the tank and swapped the gravel for something dark the fish colors would be more likely to darken up. Swapping the gravel is admittedly a lot of work. If you just added some more dark decorations and a black background it might help.

 

[fish48]

yes I agree a black background would definitely help

 

[CxN]

Thanks guys. Very helpful. For me how colorful they look are less important - just want to ensure I have the right gender balance. To err on the safe side I might add a female or two a bit later