Recently got back into having fish

[joematthew]

Just set up a 20 gallon tropical aquarium, so far i have a school of 6 Tiger barbs and a Kissing Gourami along with 3 ghost shrimp. I planted 2 live plants along with a few artificial ones to give it a dense look without spending too much on the live ones. Just wanted to see what you guys think and maybe had any tips or ideas. Thanks for your time and i look forward to hearing from you guys.

 

[GobyMaster11276]

Nice tank. How long has the tank been running for?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Nice little set up.

A word of caution, the 6 Tiger Barbs are likely to bully the gourami. Tiger Barbs are fairly aggressive and like to go for slow moving fish with long fins.

Maybe if you can return the gourami to LFS and maybe swap for one or two more Tiger Barbs. That would work best if LFS agrees.

BTW, its a good point bought up by GobyMaster in asking how long this tank has been running for as well and if you actually did anything to cycle the tank and filter for fish and shrimps.

 

[Toney]

Howdy

 

[Essjay]

I will also add that kissing gourami are big fish and need a big tank. Seriously Fish recommends a minimum tank footprint of 150 x 45 cm (60 x 18 inches).

I would definitely return the gourami to the shop.

 

[Ch4rlie]

A good reminder from essjay there.

Yep, indeed correct. Should have mentioned that about Kissing gouramis on my last post but somehow missed it completely. Oops!
But thats the good thing about this forum, people help each other out here

Kissing Gourami - Helostoma temminkii

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Tiger barbs also get fairly big, I Assume a school of 5 for a 20 gallon is OK but you have to be choosy with your tank mates, anything shy or with long flowy fins usually does not work out well with tiger barbs. I'd reccomend a Bristle nose pleco, or any kind of smaller pleco like a clown or pit bull pleco exc.