how many tiger barbs for 50 gallon?

djsaltynuts

Piranha
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at what point will the tiger barbs stop schooling together? i keep building up their school because they get picked off so id like as big of a school as possible but i dont want them to spread out and stop tightly schooling. i have juvenile cichlids with them so will that keep them tightly packed together no matter how many i add since they wont become too comfortable? i have 13 and i think 15-25 would look great in a 50 . whats the recommended max amount for a 50 gallon 50?
 
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Deadeye

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I think 20-25 depending on tankmates is good.
 
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FLA

Polypterus
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If you ever see a school of 50 tiger barbs you won't forget it. They may spread out a little but they tend to keep together. When you feed them they are amazing it is like a tornado. How many you can have depends on what else is in there.
 

The Masked Shadow

Redtail Catfish
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I remember Cory from Aquarium Co-op having a 75 gallon tank with a ton of tigers. It was a feeding frenzy. What kind of cichlids?
 
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djsaltynuts

Piranha
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allot of my tanks are stocking overflows for eachother going from 10 gallons to 120 gallons in the 50 i have a moga, red hump geos, juraparis, rainbow cichlids, green terror, a male gouramis and some fish that never leave the rock pile. the only fish that are a threat to the tigerbarbs is my juvenile starry night and my fullygrown african butterfly fish. im using the tigerbarbs to try to confuse the cichlids when they chase eachother and to prevent territories from forming. the starry night tries to kill the tigerbarbs under an inch. allot of the cichlids will be in bigger tanks in the next two months.

i obviously wont be adding school of 50 to all these fish but i wanted to work out the max number. i was thinking i could fit a pretty nice school of 35 with the cichlids.
 
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Deadeye

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I wouldn’t go more than 25. Until some stuff gets moved, that’s gonna be overstocked.
 
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djsaltynuts

Piranha
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I wouldn’t go more than 25. Until some stuff gets moved, that’s gonna be overstocked.
cichlid wise its definitely already overstocked but the fish arent forced to be close together. while i have so many cichlids in a small tank i figured id be best off trying to acheive the overstocked african cichlid effect. i also i figured having allot of tigerbarbs would decrease aggression because if the moga charges itll get confused by the flurry of stripes making it hard to see its target.
 

djsaltynuts

Piranha
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Sep 11, 2020
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I remember Cory from Aquarium Co-op having a 75 gallon tank with a ton of tigers. It was a feeding frenzy. What kind of cichlids?
now its like a 1000 gallon with even more.
 
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