200L / 53 US gallon

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JLawson90

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Stocking suggestions that go with tiger/green barbs please?

I've currently got a group of 12 of these, although will be upping this number to 17, most likely 17 anyway .. so that should curb their aggression somewhat

although I will still need fish that wont be targeted by them or indeed be easy victims.. suggestions?
 
I am not that experienced with aggressive fish but I will relate what is going on in one of my tanks. I have 5 semi-aggressive Gourami's (very large) and one aggressive Cichlid (unknown species the owner of the local pet shop convinced me she was a Gourami due to the "spot" on her side). The Gourami spend most of their time chasing each other and trying to prevent each other from having any time off to relax or eat - they don't bite, just a lot of bumping and chasing. Totally left out of the game is my Cichlid who spends her day hiding in a tree trunk cave (so glad I bought that) or risked being chased and attacked constantly by all my Gourami's. She is more of a bottom feeder so she gets plenty to eat and defends her territory quite well - but what a lonely, stressful life.

It just seems to me that when you have so many tiger barbs and even plans to increase that number - then why not just have a single species tank rather than take the risk of injuring other fish you might try to add. The guidelines of what is supposed to be peaceful vs aggressive (and how aggressive) is not cut in stone - you might risk having a very unhappy situation going if you add fish even deemed "compatible"

Case in point, I have a single zebra striped danio - a beginner fish and one of the most peaceful. Technically he should live in a group, but he KILLED all his schoolmates by chasing the weakest one at a time until they died from the stress - then I was SHOCKED to watch him eat the fins off of one of my dwarf Gourami's (3x his size) because the dwarf Gourami was so overly passive. The Gourami died a day later. I do not allow him more companions and he's seemed to settle down without his "gang" - but I was SO close to euthanizing him.

Obviously get other opinions, but your numbers may be too high where you can't have a successful community tank unless you have room for similar/equal numbers and even then you may be inviting a huge amount of fighting and territorialism.

Again, an opinion of a newbie.
 
Stocking suggestions that go with tiger/green barbs please?

I've currently got a group of 12 of these, although will be upping this number to 17, most likely 17 anyway .. so that should curb their aggression somewhat

although I will still need fish that wont be targeted by them or indeed be easy victims.. suggestions?

You are certainly on the right track. Tiger Barbs in a group of 12 to 17 is very wise; in most cases this avoids aggressive issues (fin nipping, etc), though individual fish do not always adhere to the norm for the species. But it is a much better probability it will succeed. And a 50g is good space and allows you some other species. To that question.

Substrate fish generally fare OK, so in this sized tank one of the smaller loach species. All loaches are shoaling, so here five or six is minimum. They are highly social fish, and species to varying degrees have very defined hierarchies within the group, so make sure you get them together and add them to the tank at the same time. There are some "dwarf" species, and a couple of the medium-sized species might work, depending upon the tank length. If the 50g is minimum 3 feet (90 cm) in length, a species of one oof these might be an option. Or a group of cories, but never loaches and cories together.

For uppper fish, another barb or danio is best, in a decent-sized group. Barbs and danios are relatively active swimmers and thus putting such fish together is more likely to work. Slower species like the rasboras would not mix well. And with the TB obviously no sedate or long-fin fish like cichlids, gourami, etc. That is just too risky. A few of the more active tetras might also work.
 

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