hello,
i have a 300L tank which contains a pair of firemouth cichlids, 8 tiger barbs and 2 bristlenose cats. This combination has worked well for me. A few days ago i was in a store and saw a lone clown barb mixed in (probably shipped by mistake) with some tigers. It appealed to me and i bought it, but i wonder if i have done the right thing. I know barbs should be kept in schools, but it is unlikely i will ever find another clown where i live. There are no problems at the moment, though it tries to school sometimes with the tigers which don't really want anything to do with it. Will it be ok in the long term?

I suppose the real answer is, if it was alone, and where you are you will not find others, is it worse off with you then alone in the shop? They are a shoaling fish of course, so would be better housed in numbers, but again, where from?

Serious plant nibblers are B. everetti.

ok thank you. I have only plastic plants. I guess i will just keep an eye on him, if he becomes nippy or reclusive, i will either return him or make a serious effort to seek other tankmates. One other question, if i do manage to source other clowns, would another 4 or 5 push my tank over its stocking limit? It is a 3'x2'x2'.

BTW, i am not concerned about any impacts on the breeding of the firemouths, it is a display tank only.
thanks again.

At the end of their lives, I ended up with a single old B. everetti, she never bothered anyone. They are big fish mind, 100+mm, so in a tank that size, a decent group is going to push stocking, you seem aware of that however. Handsome and peaceful. The thing that I remember most about them was when I bred them, the eggs were so small relative to the parents, but wow, were there a lot of them! I think you have already decided on what I would consider the best course of action. Good luck.

Thanks,
and something else that is obvious, this guy is a voracious eater! Within a few seconds he will suck in many of the small pellets destined for the tiger barbs, along with 3 or 4 of the large pellets i use to feed the firemouths. And i thought the tigers were little piggies!

I will leave things as they are for now, if i become really attached to him i may source some more, but only as a substitute for either the tigers or firemouths. I don't really want to turn this tank into a very high maintenance one.
cheers