Fishies-for-me

Hi I have a 36 gallon tank with 10 cherry barbs and 10 glowlight tetras. The cherries are 2 regular males , 4 regular females and 4 albino females. One of the males is very territorial and keeps all the other fish in one end of the tank while he has the rest . Is this normal and what can I do about it? . He isnt harming anyone that I can see but the stress is what I dont like. Also I have a tank that is crowded on one end and bare in the rest..lol. I added more plants to break things up a bit ...but it didn't work. Any advise would be appreciated ...Thanks.

platy ben

you could try putting him into another tank for a while but then again he would be lonely, or maybe you could just take him back to the shop?

BipBop

You could try completely rearranging everything. Then he wouldn't know what territory was his anymore.

I have a pushy male cherry barb too. He's the alpha of the boys. Some days he crosses the line and I have to spank him.

peacemaker92

Rearranging everything won't really do any good. He'd just end up doing the territory all over again and in comes the stress again for the others!

peacemaker92

Try Platy Ben's idea! You can put him in another tank but smaller. Maybe having two females or one more male with him then he wouldn't be lonely. But if he starts getting the territorial attitude again, then sending him back to the shop and exchange for another CB would be a good idea.

Shawnie

Rearranging does help re-establish the pekcing order...sometimes it has to be done once a month depending on how determined the bully is