Green Tiger Barb School

[Circus]

I picked up a group of 7 green tiger barbs yesterday, and they are doing great. I was wondering if I should add more, as they are absolutely fascinating to watch! In with them are 2 firemouths, a rainbow cichlid, and a blue acara. I will be adding an adult BN pleco in a couple of months. It is 80 gallons, 48x18x21.5.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

The bigger the school, the happier the fish and you will be. I say go for it.

They feel more secure in larger groups, so they will start to show more natural behavior.

 

[AquaBarb]

I picked up a group of 7 green tiger barbs yesterday, and they are doing great. I was wondering if I should add more, as they are absolutely fascinating to watch! In with them are 2 firemouths, a rainbow cichlid, and a blue acara. I will be adding an adult BN pleco in a couple of months. It is 80 gallons, 48x18x21.5.

You have very similar stocking to what im looking into at the moment ?

How are you finding the barbs in with the cichlids?

 

[dsch132]

I've also noticed that larger shoals tend to help assuage fin nipping behavior.

 

[cdelly]

sorry but when the 4 chiclids are full size the tank is at it's limit, that is before the barbs and BN

so go for it and add loads more, is not the best advice

Imo i wouldn't have the smaller barbs in with the chiclids, especially if you dont know if the firemouths are going to be a breading pair. if they do bread then you will have loads of space as they will kill the rest of the fish.

as i said sorry, but need to think of the fully grown size and if you are going to upgrade as the fish grow

 

[Circus]

You have very similar stocking to what im looking into at the moment ?

How are you finding the barbs in with the cichlids?

They are all doing very well, actually. The rainbow cichlid I have in there is pushed around a little, but nobody else is showing aggression. So far as I can tell the Firemouths aren't showing any signs of breeding, which is good so far as I am concerned. Everybody is pretty chill at the moment.

If any of the fish do start showing signs of aggression, I know my LFS will likely give me trade credit.

 

[AquaBarb]

Id love a group of eba's or rainbows with my barbs but i know you can get issues when you get some pair up. May have to do singletons.

Its good you have a plan B, hopefully yours carry on being good together tho

 

[cdelly]

sorry but don't agree

when i was a lot younger and just starting out, was sold some firemouths as community fish, they were fine but for some chasing but woke up one morning to a tank of dead/ on their last legs fish and 2 very happy but patrolling firemouths. you cannot watch them 24 hours a day and it's usually at night when the deadly deed happens.

you are talking about a fish that can grow upwards of 7 inch against a fish of maybe 2 inch, even though the 2 inch has his mates they are still going to lose