How many fish can I fit?????

[pyroman9]

So in your opinions....

I have a 55g tank
filter magnum 350
live plants

What would be the max number of barbs that I can put in the tank? I also have a few orange tail zebra loaches (3) for the bottom...

I have a variety of types but all smaller ones (tiger barbs and smaller)

[Eoibio]

Hmm maybe 28 tiger barbs is that all your keeping? never heard of 'orange tail zebra loaches'...they could get big...???

[Allan01230]

If that is all that will be in there I would say a school of 15 to 20.

[pyroman9]

no they only get like 5 inches. hmmm ok so if i am counting right i have around 40 barbs in the tank. Now according to my calculations of the cubic inch rules..

3in long x .5 in wide x 1in tall. approx. keep in mind i have about 10 much smaller ones...

so i think that would mean i could have around 40 in there... i do good water changes and take good care of the tank. lol

I am basically trying to decide if i want to get a few more in there.. I am close to 35 now and the tank is running great. some full grown, some not.

[Eoibio]

Any pics? of any of the fish? or could you list all the species of barbs?

[sick_lid]

40 tiger barbs in a 55? No way. The inch per gallon rule doesn't apply to everything. I wouldn't add anymore to fit them comfortably. They get like 2".

[Eoibio]

Ive seen t barbs a little over 2'' tbh..but he says he has got mixed barbs..so..

[pyroman9]

hahah ok so here is what i have done

i told you the tank already. It is a barb themed tank. I have got most of the barbs that remain under 4 inches, do not yet have roseline barbs (they are coming soon).

I started off with getting 6 of each type.. and immediately noticed that was WAY to many if i intended to get a lot of types...

So i had 6 black ruby barbs and 6 tiger barbs.... and they were about 2 inches each..

My buddy has a 30 gallon with a whopping 2 ruby barbs in it.. so I just gave him 3 of each of those two species..

So now I have

x3 tiger barb
x3 black ruby barb
x3 panda barb
x3 albino barb
x3 checkerboard barb
x3 five stripe barb
x3 cherry barb
x3 rosy barb
x3 red cheeked tiger barb
x1 t barb
x1 philosphous (sp?) barb
x1 green fin barb (not sure on exact name, a knockoff of philosophous barb)

x3 zebra loach
x1 red tailed botia (3 inches now, had it from previous tank, friend will prob throw this in his 30g)
x1 pleco (I know this will outgrow the tank, the LFS has a agreement that they will trade for a smaller one, once it gets to big. They like this because there are a list of people waiting for big plecos for bigger tanks so this works out well.)

I think that is it.... lol its not easy keeping track of these guys. Tank has great parameters, very clean, weekly if not twice a week water changes. Plants healthy, just upgraded to T5HO.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/pyroman9/PA010001.jpg

The tank is cloudy right now due to the fact I had to pull things in order to catch the 6 barbs that were taken by my buddy so i can have room for 3 roseline barbs once i find them somewhere.

[randomlugia]

Looks nice. That's a nice piece of driftwood in there, too.

[pyroman9]

Here is a shot I just took, you will see some things changed, because I was due for a water change, and I ended up having to pull the wood to get the stupid 6 barbs out.. well smart, not easy to catch... Under the center those ferns are planted in a piece of driftwood, hoping it will work out well there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/pyroman9/PA020008.jpg

[~ocean]

nice tank, the loaches are going to get 6 inches each... you won't be able to raise thoses guys all in a 55 g.

[Eoibio]

Thats an amazing looking tank. Im jealous. The tank sounds pretty well stocked.

[~ocean]

probably not eoibio, that's enough fish or else that tank won't be in that condition for long...

[pyroman9]

ocean hence i ditched 6 today and will pick up 3 roselines when i get the money and find some locally.

~ocean is right though that I must maintain very good care of the tank and keep a close eye on it to keep it in good shape. I do have a spare 10g if needed, and I also have another 30 that I can set up pretty easily. I needed to get 3 loaches at the time because they are small and i need them to keep up on the cleaning with the pleco. I have kept loaches before and zebra loaches are pretty slow growers. Once they do get much larger I will prob donate the pleco to a big tank.. and then the three loaches can stay. We will see that will be a few years for them to grow that big. And maybe then... I can have a bigger tank :)

The other thing I am hoping to have happen is that the fish give off considerable CO2 and help the plants, the plants will use some of the nutrients and hte loaches and pleco will take care of the rest. That would be ideal at least :)

[FishFreak95]

If your aquarium is well filtered and is taken care of properly, I think it should be OK.

[FishFreak95]

Also, maybe you should lower the number of your cleaning crew a little because they might suck off all the biofilm of everything and the biofilm helps maintain the water parameters, but it is good to have some cleaners though. I would sell 1 red tailed botia loach, but thats just me

[pyroman9]

as stated in the first post i have a magnum 350 filter on it and keep good care of it. I love the theme of having all barbs, man is it hard to remember the names though lol

[pyroman9]

yea the redtail is going to go to a good home at some point, i never see it out anyways... i can rarely ever even find it.

[Allan01230]

Make sure when you find the roselines they put 1 per bag and you get them to thier tank quickly. I learned that the hard way took my time getting home since I made a coupel other stops. I lost 3 of my roselines and only had 1. These were adults and they don't ship well. The one that made is now 6 inches and very active. Very cool fish. Cost me $30 a pop.

[pyroman9]

Thank you for the advise on that allen. That is why I want to get them locally. I figure I will get 2 of them prob. Can you post pics of yours?

[Austin]

Also, maybe you should lower the number of your cleaning crew a little because they might suck off all the biofilm of everything and the biofilm helps maintain the water parameters, but it is good to have some cleaners though. I would sell 1 red tailed botia loach, but thats just me

bio-film huh? interesting...