Cherry Barbs - Male Or Females?

[geordieelvis]

Hi guys, I currently have 3 cherry barbs (1 male 2 female) and I am going to be getting another 3 soon. Am I better having the same ratio of Male to Female or mostly female or does it not matter ?

 

[KirkyArcher]

I bought 5 cherry barbs and two of them were obviously male the other 3 were very young and believed to be females, "Wrong" I actually have 3 males and 2 females in the tank. 2:1 is usually the recommended ratio, but with plenty of hiding spaces amongst the plants all should  be fine if you deviate slightly away from this rule of thumb.
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[geordieelvis]

Cool, cheers for that. I have read that 2 males can be entertaining as they show off to each other in the tank

 

[MBOU]

I always found Cherries to be a bit different to the 1:2 (m:f) ratio, I always found they did better and coloured up better with 50/50 males and females, the bigger the group the better! Currently have 5m 5f in 300L and they look a bit lost, ought to add more really but they do look great. In the past I have picked out and kept entire groups of males and found they actually coloured up better and more consistently without females present lol but temperament wise, not entirely sure if they actually care!