# Stocking question, and tiger barbs



## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

Hey all, quick stocking question,

Right now in my 55g I have 3 boesemani rainbows, a medium size bala shark, 5 cardinal tetras, 3 platys, a couple loaches and 4 otos.

aqadvisor says I'm at 100% right now, but I find that hard to believe, I run 2 AC110s also.

I would really like to add some tiger barbs to my tank as they caught my eye a while ago and my tank seems well set up for them, it's moderately planted with a bunch of driftwood and rock for cover. My ph is around 7.6-7.8 and I keep the temp at 25c.

I understand that the barbs are somewhat aggressive so I will most likely move the platys to my 15g and make that a livebearer tank.

Once they are moved, would it be feasible to add 6-8 tiger barbs? Would I be overstocked?

Thanks


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

What type of Loaches are they? Makes a big difference. Clown Loaches shouldn't even be in a tank that size. 

Personally, I think Tiger Barbs should be in big groups in tanks nearly by themselves. Although I think you have already ventured down the wrong road putting a Bala in with everything else. Tigers can cause a lot of "harmony" problems.

As far as stocking beyond what a Aqadv says, if you have Clown Loaches I am sure that is why it says you are maxed. I would ask what your weekly water changes look like and what are your nitrates readings before the change? The amount of filtration don't mean much if you are not changing a good amount of the water.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

1^ with jr all the way!
I'll add that if you are concerned with aggression,why are you moving the platys and not the cardinals.Tigers do best in species only tanks with large numbers to spread out the beatings.Just being a very "active " fish may stress some of the more peaceful ones.
I'd be way more worried about my cards than the platys.


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## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

Not to worry, they are zebra loaches, def not clowns, I knew that before getting them, and the bala is leftover from many years ago now when he was in my 15g, I'm pretty sure he accounts for a good 20% of the stocking alone.

I figured the platys were slower than the cardinals so I figured they would be more at risk, I could put the cardinals in with the platys, they would all be fine in the 15g, it's pretty much empty right now.

I change about 30 % weekly and never have nitrates over 5-10.

I may wait a bit for the tigers


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## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

I agree that moving the Cardinals and the Platys will help eitherway. As for those before me, tiger barbs are just bad news in most community tanks. Keep in mind that they are notorious fin nippers and also extremely aggressive feeders. With a shoal of tigers everyone else is going to get hungry. You don't really have enough rainbows for them to be confortable at this point and your tank is too small to set up a proper group of 6-8. They are likley to stress from the tigers interactions and may get beat up trying to get enough food. My guess is within a week they will lose their color due to stress.

I think you might want to take a day or two and figure out what you want to do, plan it out based on research-reading- and pick up another tank to move some of what you have. You may also want to re-home some fish that don't work with the plan.


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## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

well, it was a hypothetical question anyways, perhaps I'll just leave it as is now


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## mambee (Jul 19, 2013)

I think that you have scale (size) issues. Your Boesmanis and Bala Sharks are going to get very large and your Cardinals and Ottos are going to stay small. You should move the latter to other tanks. They are either going to be eaten by the larger fish or scared into hiding.


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## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

the bala has been with much smaller fish for years now, never been a problem, i've never heard of otos being scared of much, they hang out in the open all day,

as for the boesemani, they get to about 5 inches which seems appropriate for the center fish of my tank.


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## 8upHobbiest (Nov 15, 2013)

I don't mean to beat a dead horse on the Tiger Barb issue, but even in my 125 gal, I had seven of them and that was TOO many. They fight amongst themselves all day and disturb the other fish. NOT a community fish IMHO! I took all of them out! You also need to pay attention to the male/female ratios if you go ahead with them anyway. The males are much more colorful and much more boisterous. I actually had 3 different males who during the course of "mouth fighting" managed to tear each others mouths apart.


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## angelsdice159 (Jul 2, 2011)

+1 W/8uphobbiest
Wen I First Started I Put 15 Of Them In My 125g W/ Two Bala And A Rainbow Shark.,
And Just Like He Said They Started To Kill Each Other Off Only The Big Ones Were Left Witch Were About 4 Of Them 
Awsome Little Fish But Crayzie At The Same Time
., Just My Two Cents 
I Dont Have Them No More Went To Angels Insted Lol 
Lol


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## snowghost45 (May 13, 2013)

I've had my tanks set up over the years and always had 2 or three tiger barbs in my tanks with no problems. However, my last tank I had three of them. One was larger then the other barbs and when looked I noticed his "black" markings were a dark green, almost black. Was he an imposter? I know one thing the little bugger killed all of my fish except my angel, back to the LFS it went.


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## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

UPDATE!

so i may have a deal on a 30g tank from kijiji, the dimensions are supposedly 31x19x12, i believe that's actually a 29g, right?

anyway, so i think that would be much more appropriate for a species tank. I'm thinking 8-10 barbs.

i would like to have some loaches in there too though, i read that the barbs rarely bother the bottom feeders, but i would like some opinions on that.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Can't speak for the loaches ,but you are correct on it being a 29g.


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## dalfed (Apr 8, 2012)

Just make sure that some food makes it to the loaches, Tiger Barbs are pigs.


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