New fish for my tank, opinions please.

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Drksly3r3123

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 6, 2013
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United States
Currently I have a 30 gallon bowfront tank, I have 4 tiger barbs, 1tinfoil barb and 1 pleco. I will be upgrading to a 60 gallon within the next 2 years. I'm looking to add some color and livelyness to my tank, so I'd prefer some more colorful schooling fish, any suggestions?

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I ended up going to my lfs and he told me to get a smaller sized electric yellow cichlid, he assured me that it will only get aggressive if a fish is aggressive toward it, if it kills a fish or dies he will give me a 150% return, cash. And a albino pictus cat fish.

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Drksly3r3123 said:
Currently I have a 30 gallon bowfront tank, I have 4 tiger barbs, 1tinfoil barb and 1 pleco. I will be upgrading to a 60 gallon within the next 2 years. I'm looking to add some color and livelyness to my tank, so I'd prefer some more colorful schooling fish, any suggestions?

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Click to expand...
:screwy:
Get rid of the pleco and the tinfoil. Get 16 more tiger barbs. Enjoy.
Don't listen to people in pet stores. They are there to make money. Not give advice on fish.
 
I've had bad luck with tiger barbs. I have 1 big one that looks slightly different then the others, and whenever they eat the flake he's going for, he fights. But the other 3 I have in there he seems to enjoy and plays with them. But I've tried to add more and he singles them out. It's quite odd.

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fishbum said:
:screwy:
Get rid of the pleco and the tinfoil. Get 16 more tiger barbs. Enjoy.
Don't listen to people in pet stores. They are there to make money. Not give advice on fish.
Click to expand...


I disagree on the pet store bit. I work in a pet store and im there to make sure the fish gets a good home and the customer is satisfied
"big ball of light, spits out dinosaurs" - Mac, Primeval New World
 
Drksly3r3123 said:
I've had bad luck with tiger barbs. I have 1 big one that looks slightly different then the others, and whenever they eat the flake he's going for, he fights. But the other 3 I have in there he seems to enjoy and plays with them. But I've tried to add more and he singles them out. It's quite odd.
Click to expand...

The 1 tiger barb is likely the alpha male. He'll be bigger because he eats more. Tigers shoal (there is a leader who insists on respect and food) although people often call them schooling fish. (Tinfoils shoal as well.)

Tiger Barbs should be kept in larger groups than 4 as their behavior will be more natural in groups of 8 or more (although 5 is the recommended minimum.) Tinfoils should not be solitary since they shoal as well.

I'd remove the tinfoil and get more tiger barbs. In a 60, you might be fine to get a completely different set of fish to add to your tank. (Keep in mind that a large tinfoil will swallow small fish. From my experience anything that is torpedo shaped and somewhere around 1/8th his size is considered food.)

I don't have a strong opinion on the pleco, but he is probably not the best choice for your set up. Plecos typically get large, poop a lot, and have special requirements for food/decor that the others don't.
 
My plan is to move the pleco into the 60 gal along with the tinfoil and buy more tinfoils. Now I used to have 8 tiger barbs, the two biggest denied them any food, I started to notice a pattern in their deaths. About 2 weeks after adding them they would start to go hide in a corner one by one, this was before I added the tinfoil. Then they would die. After I added the tinfoil they started to school with the tinfoil and they stopped killing each other off. It's an odd thing to see, but the little electric yellow cichlid I added is also schooling with the barbs, theyre much more active since I added him. My tank feels okay now, for my 60 gal I wanted to have at least 4 discus, and that was what I want to base my tank around, fish that'd go well and show colors with them.

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Ah ha.

Some barbs will tend to group with other barbs although a different species. (Even clown loaches and tiger barbs will group.) If the tigers are following the tinfoil, then he may be seen as the leader so the alpha male has stopped his bullying. So are the other tigers able to eat now?

It's possible you may be able to add more tigers as long as you keep that tinfoil, but I think a 60 is going to be too small for a shoal of tinfoils (as tinfoils grow really large.)

Interesting dilemma.
 
All the tiger barbs are eating well and the actual alpha tiger barb will only pick on one until the tinfoil swims over, then the big tiger barb as well as the other 3 will just sorta follow the tinfoil around the tank in a small school. It is quite interesting. I just found a deal on a 100 gallon today, but I want to do saltwater for that tank, either that or convert my fresh water into the 100 gal and make a small saltwater paradise out of my 30 bowfront. The bowfront is just a tad more modern looking and with the black oak stand, I think I could put a decent small set of fish and decor in there to really add color to my living space.

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Plus I wanna make sure I get practice with salt water before I start putting a lot of money into it. I love salt water fish, but I hate hurting them, so I'd prefer to minizmize on deaths on the fact that I'm a beginner with salt water, I'd prefer to not have issues keeping up on it.

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