Which barbs will shoal together??

[Mustang5L5]

I'm trying to build up a little shoal of barbs in my convict tank. Right now i have 5 Tigers, 3 Albinos and 1 Green Barb. It took em a little while but now they shoal together perfectly. It's awesome to watch them and it makes the tank a bit more exciting to watch.

Anyway i wanna build my little school up to 15 barbs. I want to try to get a diverse group going?

What other types of barbs will shoal together? I want to pick up 2 or 3 more green barbs but will cherry barbs shoal as well?

Also, how large do these barbs get? If it's a decent size i will scale back my school to 10 fish (meaning i can get 1 more). Right now all my barbs are 1/2" big. Pretty tiny for the time being.

 

[Rose]

Don't use Cherry barbs they won't do well in that tank. Tigers, Albinos, and Greens are about what you want. Most of the rest are more in the general type tanks. They would go with swordtails and fish like that. You might be able to get some Red Ruby Barbs to work with your other barbs. That's about all I can think of that would work in a cichlid tank.

Rose

 

[phoenix]

the rosie barbs in my wifes tank hang with the rest . but your playing with fire having the cons in there. especialy when the cons start to mate.. mating convict will likely equal dead barbs......

 

[Lateral Line]

Cherry Barbs are not a schooling fish. Males kept together may fight, especially in small tanks. Best kept as a pair or trio, 1 male 2 females. They tend to stay close to the bottom and are not as active as B. tetrazona etc. I do not think they are suited to that tank at all.

All the different types of B. tetrazona, (Tigers), will shoal together - generally the more of them you have, the better behaved they are.

That said, I don't think even fast active small barbs are ideal tank mates for Convicts, they are nasty things.

 

[ryan]

I wouldn't but any barbs with Convicts unless you are prepared for a few to be killed every now and again.

I found Golden Barbs are quite active shoalers although sometimes they will stray away from each other.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Well, so far so good. To be honest the cons don't even go after the barbs at all. They basically ignore EVERY other fish in the tank and just focus on themselves. That tank is a 40gal tall and pretty well planted so they all have plenty of space. In the past i have kept a breeding pair with fry in this tank along with other's of community fish such as gouramis, swordtails and even angel fish. I rarely lost a fish due to violence. Of course that was back when i was younger and didn't know.

But i think i have two of the cons about to pair up so the other two will be getting brought back to free up territory. Actually, last night i had to remove the betta i have in the tank because he would not leave the cons alone. All 4 cons are the same size as him and i watched him chase them for about an hour last night before I put him in a little floating breeding box. At that point two of the cons were hiding behind plants and didn't come out for a while. I found that a bit funny though seeing as the cons were the first fish in the tank and had established territories. He would flare his gills and display at the cons and they would run and he would give chase. As it stands he is the most agressive fish in the tank.

He's back in the tank now and for the most part leaves them alone now. They don't even go near him. He will be getting removed soon because i'm sure things will change when the pair forms. The barbs don't even bother him as they are too busy with their own little group. But his 1 gallon tank is still up and waiting even though he is 10X more livlier in the big tank.

But anyway can someone answer me as to how big the barbs will get? I don't want to build up too big of a shoal. How many would you do in my tank?

 

[Lateral Line]

B. tetrazona rarely grows more then 2.5"/65mm in a tank. In the wild, maybe 3.5"/80mm.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Given that, i'll stick with 9 barbs then. If i can find a rosie barb or a golden barb, i might get 1. But i won't go more than 10

One more thing. What was labeled as an Albino Barb at my LFS, isn't really a true albino. It looks identical to the tiger barbs except the stripes are a pale white. You can still see them, barely. The fin tips are still red and the eyes are black. Are these still albino barbs or perhaps something else?

 

[Lateral Line]

There are "albino" Tiger Barbs around, the black is missing, but often then red is still there. They will school with other tetrazona.

A single Rosy or Golden Barb is not going to be happy, a Rosy may form up with the tigers, but may not, and a Golden, lives lower in the tank, and is not a frantic fish like tetrazona are.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Ok thanks, i'll just stick with what i have now. They are a lively group and shoal together perfectly. I feel bad that i only have 1 green barb, but he is part of the shoal so i would assume that's just as good as if they were all green barbs

I think i'm satisfied with the number of fish in the tank. If anything, i'll be taking a few out soon (the betta and 2 cons)

Thanks again everyone