# Tank Mates for Cherry Barbs



## ondoa (Feb 8, 2015)

I have a 20g high tank with 6 cherry barbs. I would like to add some other interesting variety. Please let me know some suggestions that would work well with the CBs. I don't want to have any fins nipped.
many thanks.


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## Farm (Nov 17, 2014)

Cherry Barbs can be a bit nippy as tankmates for sure and now that they have been in the tank on their own you may have to rearrange it a bit and remove some of their ownership prior to adding any new tankmates. Actually completely rearrange your tank décor so that they believe they are in an entirely new tank and add the new mates at the same time. I will say if I were going to add mates I would go with another schooling fish like the Cardinal tetras. If you added a school of 6 your stocking level should be well below a safe level to not put you at an overstocked tank. They are generally a low output fish. Your barbs are not and probably use up quite a bit of your bioload space for your tank size. If you do notice aggression with those barbs you will need to remove the aggressor from the tank into a holding container or qt tank for a half hour or a day if possible, then place it back in the tank, repeat as necessary for longer periods. Neon Tetra are a bit smaller, you could try a group of 10 with them, they would look very good with your others. Although they can be considered nippy if you keep them in a larger group and they feel safe they will generally leave other fish alone. The nippy behavior is usually present when they feel threatened due to lack of space or too small a shoal. I lean towards two schools as they look just fantastic in those 20 high tanks... my opinion. Many people toss many differing types of fish in that size tank... which is great but you can lose focus on individual beauty that way as well. Again, just my opinion. Have fun!


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## ondoa (Feb 8, 2015)

thanks for that great answer. I think I agree with you about another schooling fish. Neons or Cardinals would be beautiful.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

well if you want something that wont get nipped then try some fast tetras.


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## Farm (Nov 17, 2014)

Plus tetras are not helpless surprisingly enough. When they are in a school they do defend themselves and gather tightly together and make it difficult for the nippy barb to attack just one of them. Generally, the Tetra are fierce little beasts when pushed!  I have a collection of them. I do not like Serpae Tetra. They enter the tank as a nice looking community acting fish but as soon as they establish themselves they begin attacking, damaging and picking off the other fish. No Serpae Tetra they should be in a species only tank IMO.


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## big b (Jun 28, 2014)

my serpae tetras are in with a blue gourami multiple tetra species some golden white coulds and some cories.they all get along just swimmingly,plus the gourami is like the boss of the tank.wait no she IS the boss of the tank she will go after anybody thats in her way but she is to bulky and clumsy to catch my tetrs.


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## SueD (Aug 4, 2012)

A nice school of cories for the bottom would also work - look at panda cories for example.


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