Cycling a 20g tank with Tiger Barbs

[mogster]

I'm in the midst of letting a 20 gallon tank I setup about a week or two cycle. Initially my ammonia levels were at about .5ppm, but after some settling and some water changes, they dropped to roughly .25ppm.

Once I saw that the ammonia levels were at .25ppm for a day or two, I decided to try adding 3 tiger barbs to the tank. I've read that many people will cycle their fish with them since they are very hardy.

I wasn't sure how well they'd do because of the ammonia levels, but they seem to be doing alright. When I first bought them, two of the three's stripes were very faded looking, but within a day or so the stripe color has completely returned.

They seem to be doing well overall except I'm having some problems with aggression. One of the barbs keeps relentlessly chasing after the other two to the point that they just sort of hang in the corner, often times towards the top of the tank which worries me a bit.

I'm considering purchasing another few barbs to put in the tank to try to spread the aggression out and to help give the current underlings a break, but I don't want the ammonia to have a huge spike. I've been in the habit of scrubbing the sides of the tank, cleaning ~15% of the gravel and doing ~20-25% water changes every day. If I keep this up, would it be a problem adding another two or three barbs? I don't want my alpha barb to chase the others to death

 

[tableau]

They are not hardy to ammonia at all !!!!!!!!!!!! You definately need more than 3 to spread the agression. You could daily dose the tank with prime so th fish won't suffer.

 

[mogster]

They are not hardy to ammonia at all !!!!!!!!!!!! You definately need more than 3 to spread the agression. You could daily dose the tank with prime so th fish won't suffer.

Hi, thanks for the reply. All of my daily water changes are treated with prime before I add them to the tank. Today I performed a ~50% change since it's been about a week that I've had my tank setup. I've also been adding a bit of Prime to my tank close to 12 hours after I do a water change just to ensure that my fish are as comfortable as is possible during cycling. Do you think if I purchase 3 more tiger barbs to spread the aggression out that I'll be okay as far as ammonia levels if I keep up with the amount of maintenance that I've been performing? I'm willing to do as much maintenance as needed to keep them safe.

 

[tableau]

If you only have tiger barbs, the agression should not be a big problem. I have ten in a 20 gallons because I don't want them anynore with my other fish. Cycling a tank is a long process and doing daily 50% water changes may stress the fish. You could daily dose the tank volume with prime (2ml for 20 gals) and do wc each three days. Good luck.