The Puffer Forum

Hey,

In my 50g community tank I've been looking to add some schooling fish. I kind of wanted a colorful, fast swimming, schooling fish. Something to catch the eye in the tank, since most of my fish are bottom dwellers. I was thinking of trying green tiger barbs, but they are in the semi aggressive category. Although, I have heard that they are considered 'community' fish in larger group [5+ I think]. Anyone know exactly how true this is? :]

Here's a quick list of my tank

Glass catfish
Two kribensis
Yo yo loaches + rainbow loach
neon dwarf rainbows
aquatic frogs [the friendly smaller guys]
panda garra garra
african butterfly

I think that's mostly it.

If Tiger barbs aren't worth the risk, is there another community schooling fish that is close to what I'm looking for?

Or, I can always add a school of puffers in there [kidddddding]

Well they are just kinda nippy to other fish. Especially if they have long fins.
I think that panda barbs are pretty docile. I'll go get a link.

Nice! I'm having trouble finding much info on these panda barbs. If you can find that link I'd be super grateful!

I could probably add 5-8 of these guys to my tank.

Thanks~

Here is the link for Panda Barbs

And Here is the link for Cherry Barbs.

Good luck!

I had tiger barbs once. I did not find them that agresive. But I guess that depends on how interested they are in their tank mates. From my understanding semi agressive fish usually do well with fish that do not resemble their shape or color or stripe pattern if they have one. For example. I have a demansonai in a comm tank. They are known to be very aggresive. But I do not have anything else in there thats the blue like he is or shaped like him. So, he's pretty peacful. Although that is not a absolute. Some species are always agressive or always agressive torwards certain things. And some just defy the norm for their species being peacful when normally agressive or vise versa. Each fih seems to have their own personality if you watch close enough.

Ahh thanks for the links! I am probably going to get a panda barb, they seem cool, and they seem community.

I had green barbs once in a semi aggressive tank, and they seemed to focus on each other more often than anything else. I am kind of leaning towards green barbs, mostly because of their colors being really attractive.

Might have to flip a coin, or something like that.

Although, it seems safer to go with panda barbs....gah. Being torn apart

Thanks for the info guys, I'll let you know what I eventually get.

derek

instead of 8 of one kind get 4 of each, there problem solved lol

xrayjeeper83 wrote:instead of 8 of one kind get 4 of each, there problem solved lol

Good suggestion! They will still school together like that? Makes sense.

I may just get 5 green barbs, and 3 of the others. My local pet store gives you something like a 5 cent discount if you get 5

Have you seen the cherry red version of the tiger barb? They sell like hot cakes over here

I've only kept them once, when I was about eight: six of them were put into a tank with a pair of angel fish and they basically destroyed them. Lack of knowledge there. Other mistakes include adding a pair of Oscars to a tank full of guppies.

If you have enough tigers, like a dozen or so and a large enough tank, they turn into not such aggresive animals. Not as nippy to others within reason.

The worst of mine ended up quite happy in a local fish nut's house, sharing a tank with a breeding pair of convict cichlids. That was one mad barb! The aggro level was about the same.

Ya I dont know if they would school or not.

soggydrysuit wrote:Have you seen the cherry red version of the tiger barb? They sell like hot cakes over here

I've only kept them once, when I was about eight: six of them were put into a tank with a pair of angel fish and they basically destroyed them. Lack of knowledge there. Other mistakes include adding a pair of Oscars to a tank full of guppies.

If you have enough tigers, like a dozen or so and a large enough tank, they turn into not such aggresive animals. Not as nippy to others within reason.

The worst of mine ended up quite happy in a local fish nut's house, sharing a tank with a breeding pair of convict cichlids. That was one mad barb! The aggro level was about the same.

How big/old were the barbs when you put them in, compared to the angelfish? Angelfish are supposedly pretty tough.

I figure if I get young barbs, they might be conditioned to not be aggressive, because at first they won't be stronger than the others currently in there, and there is no aggressive influence in my community tank.

I still haven't gotten them, however. Gonna wait a little while I think.

The tiger barbs were only about half an inch long, the angels were three inchers

I'd be a bit concerned about your butterfly they might nip it's fin extension or or pectoral fins. And it might eat them - they do eat small fish, given the chance!

soggydrysuit wrote:I'd be a bit concerned about your butterfly they might nip it's fin extension or or pectoral fins. And it might eat them - they do eat small fish, given the chance!

African butterflies eat anything they can stuff into their big mouth. They seem so peaceful when they stay around in the tank at daytime. But at night, they pick down fish after fish, if it's small enough to fit into the mouth.

Adult angels can be mean, mean fish, but they are fragile as well in their own way. You could say that while they have a bad attitude and are fast to attack, they also have little personal defense - mean, fast moving fish like barbs(or SAPs) will take opportunistic nips at their large fins, and in an aquarium, those nips add up faster than you'd expect.

I really like african butterflies (Pantodon) but would be scared they'd jump out of the tanks I have available. They can't fly but can glide for a few metres.

Although they are the only species in their genus, I'm sure i've read that they are related to Arowana's, hence the predatory tendancies. They're not aggressive but pussycats with a big gob. They only get to three inches or so.

How about clown barbs, Barbus everetti? Bright orange with dark green stripes. These can get to five inches though...

The pair of angels I have in the pacu vat came all the way across the tank to have a go at a pair of Paradise fish I'd just added. This was from six feet away! Not much to a territorial fish in the wild...