Tiger Barbs Mates

[Herefishyfishyfishy]

Hey! I have a 30 gallon tank with 3 tiger barbs, two blue gourami and a high fin pleco. The tigers and gourami are doing really well together with no signs of bullying. Since they seen pretty balanced I'm ready to add more fish. I'm thinking of adding three more barbs to make a good sized school, and I would also like to add a bottom feeder or at least something that swims on the bottom of my tank. My pleco is shy and we never see it! I would also like to add two larger (2in +) top / mid level swimmers that would not be vulnerable to bullying in the case my tigers go through a personality change. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[elmo666]

For the bottom I would consider a shoal of coryadoras, there is a huge range to choose from, my favs are sterbii or julii (don't check spelling lol) For the upper levels maybe pearl or sparkling gourami. Bullying is very unpredictable, so in a community it is very much trial and error once you have avoided the known fish confontations.

 

[dougie]

Definitely up the Tiger Barb numbers, keeps any nipping more or less centred within the barbs themselves.
Good luck with your tank

 

[Tizer]

Dont add corys to a tiger barb tank, my tigers just ripped the dorsal fins of my corys to pieces. 30 gallons is a nice size, i'd probably go with a dozen Tiger Barbs to be honest

 

[elmo666]

I guess evryones experience must differ. I had a dozen corys with 20 or so tiger barbs in a 4' tank, never had a problem. My suggestion came from experience as did Tizers words of caution.....trial and error mate, each tank is unique.

 

[Herefishyfishyfishy]

Dont add corys to a tiger barb tank, my tigers just ripped the dorsal fins of my corys to pieces. 30 gallons is a nice size, i'd probably go with a dozen Tiger Barbs to be honest

A dozen won't be too many for my tank?

 

[elmo666]

Sorry, let me clarify that post. I was pointing out the numbers I had and none were nipped. However, that was only my experience. Corys do like to shoal, but a dozen may well be too many given your stocking. That said, 4 would be fine, 6 if you go for the smaller varieties. Hope that helps.

 

[Tizer]

Hes talking about the Tiger Barbs....

A dozen will be fine in 30 gals and half a dozen Corys of your choice too (if you want to attempt to mix, avoid peppered and bronze though, they prefer lower temps, the barbs higher)

 

[Herefishyfishyfishy]

Hes talking about the Tiger Barbs....

A dozen will be fine in 30 gals and half a dozen Corys of your choice too (if you want to attempt to mix, avoid peppered and bronze though, they prefer lower temps, the barbs higher)

He's really a she... Right now I'm running at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. So with more tiger barbs there would be less of a risk of Cory's getting bullied?

 

[Tizer]

no, at least not in my case, i had 18 of them and they still picked on my corys. You can update your profile if you don't want easy mistakes to be made about your he/she'ness.

 

[Herefishyfishyfishy]

no, at least not in my case, i had 18 of them and they still picked on my corys. You can update your profile if you don't want easy mistakes to be made about your he/she'ness.

Hahah I thought I did! Well, today I ended up getting 6 more tiger barbs, four albino ones, I also got two torpedo barbs and one rainbow shark. So far everyone is playing nicely on the playground, so hopefully they keep it up! If everything goes well I think next week I might add two silver dollar fish and be done with it. Right now I only have one living plant that I grew from bulb, once that one is in full I will take out another plastic plant and replace that with a bulb and keep doing that until all fake foliage is gone. Is that a good plan or should I do more research? I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been.

 

[Tizer]

Torpedo barbs require a lower temperature and you need to keep them in large groups of 6+. They also need a good size tank as they are spooky fish. Bad purchase on your part there Rainbow might be ok though, didnt think of that one.