namehater

im thinking of taking the endlers out of my 29g tank and replacing them with tiger barbs. my concern is that i have a long-fin bristlenose pleco, 3 albino cory cats, and 4 xray tetra. would tiger barbs be a bad idea?

what im really wanting is something with a little more size, something that will be active and in the 3" range. got any ideas?

Blub

The Barbs could go wrong, and assault your other fish. I'd look at 5 bleeding heart tetras (2 male 3 female) as they are BEAUTIFUL and peaceful.

namehater

everything im finding about the bleeding heart say that its a timid fish, im not sure timid is quite what i want

Shawnie

the bleeding hearts we have at work are totally skittish fish...you dont see them unless its feeding time and they hide behind the plants alot..but we do have a ton of traffic by the tank so who knows...I think a nice school of barbs (5 or more)would be cool..but how are the xray tetras size wise? i think barbs are amazing and hoping to have a nice school myself soon ...(had them in the past but didnt have the proper school and they were horrible to others)

namehater

my main concern with the barbs is my pleco, he has very long beautiful fins and i would die if a barb tore him up.

the xray are all about full grown i think, they are just under 2".

would a pair or trio of angels work maybe?

Shawnie

ive never read or heard of barbs bothering a pleco but i guess anything could happen .....a pair of angels might be too much if they pair up and spawn..your tetras wouldnt stand a chance..but maybe one angel would be awesome..or a DG maybe?

Blub

Mine are the complete opposite! Always at the front of the tank. On the line of gouramis - what about Moonlight gouramis? Slightly bigger than 3" but lovely fish. Or, Black/Balloon mollys?

namehater

bigger than 3" is ok, 3" is just the smallest that i would like to have. i dont have anything against mollies, but i have kept them in the past

shawnie, what is a DG, a dwarf gourami? i think the are a little bit on the small side for me, from what i have read anyhow. arent they under 3"?

Shawnie

yes its a dwarf gourami...the DG has a line under it and when a word has that, you can click on it and it gives all the info for them and yes they are 3-4 inches and your OP said 3 inches so I thought of them and in a 29 gal tank you dont have a ton of room to work with as your tetras will take up some of that middle to top space...

namehater

if i went with dwarf's how many could i keep? are they very active?

Shawnie

they are alot like bettas and from the same family...you could have 2 max and that might be pushing it in a 29 gal..they can be territorial but with some taller plants to hide and call their own, its doable

MissMTS

Everyone has given good suggestions so far I thought I would throw a couple more ideas out there:

1 BN Pleco: 5 inches
4 X-ray Tetras: 8 inches
3 Albino Cories: 9 inches
Total: 22 inches
Remaining Room: 7-8 inches

With that 7-8 inches you could do one of the following:
2 Bolivian Rams
2 Pearl Gouramis
1 Angel

I wouldn't go with a school of barbs unless you take your tetras out of the tank. You don't really have room for a large school in there right now, and if you get just 2-3 of them, they will get very nippy.

namehater

im definitely going to have to consider the rams, that would be pretty neat