Question On Stocking Cherry Barbs

[vereyna]

I have a 20g tall (I believe 24 x 13 x 17) that needs stocking. It's all cycled and ready to go...With the help of my main tanks' media. I am going for a friendly tropical community tank here.

I would like to add Cherry Barbs, but my question to you is: Would it be okay to have an all male set up for this species? I'm still not 100% if I even want to go this route, but I do like the redness of the males over the females. IF they would do better and benefit from a ratio of 1m/3-4f or something (and I know sometimes this even brings out more natural behavior and personality), I will do it... Just curious if there will be bickering among all the sexually frustrated bachelors or not lol. Also, my tank has a very tan look to it, wood decor, natural tan looking gravel, I'm afraid the females wouldn't stand out very well.

I have other stocking questions about this tank I may ask in other threads as they don't necessarily pertain to Barbs...

Thanks!

 

[Ripley]

I have kept all male Cherry barbs together in a 10 gallon and had no trouble.

 

[Dunkal]

I've kept 4 female cherry barbswith 2 males and that makes the male cherry barb's colourseven better. If the males are kept on their own then they wont colour up as well as there are no females to impress.

 

[MHunt]

Yeah I agree on the colour thing with no females around. I had my females out of my main tank for a while as they were nipping my apisto's fins, and the male on his own was pretty pale, almost pink in colour. Now they're all in the same tank the males much more attractive. With a mixed group you're also more likely to have males displaying to each other to impress the females which is another fascination of this species. Also with a mixed group, if you can provide the right conditions they'll breed quite easily if that's something you're into.