Kashim

I bought 7 cherry barbs a few days ago. When I was at the pet store, I noticed they only had a few really red ones and the majority were more orange than red. The clerk told me the bright ones are male and the dull ones are female. Then I asked the obvious question; Would the males harass the females if I got mostly males? She told me it would be no problem and they wouldn't harass the females. I ended up getting 5 males and 2 females. Now my worry is that everyone is telling me I should have gotten more females than males. Did I make a mistake?

The thing is, so far the clerk has been absolutely correct. My cherries have been extremely peaceful with each other. I haven't seen either of the females harassed or even chased around at all. Usually one or two cherries are off doing their own thing, exploring the tank or hiding amidst the plants. Mostly I see 4 or 5 of them schooling, just floating around, looking very relaxed. They took up residence on the side of the tank with the big bushy plant, opposite of where my guppies live. They look very comfortable. Should I be worried about the males getting aggressive towards the females later on?

mrsmuffin

I have 4 females and 4 males and have not noticed any unusual aggression. They chase and play in different combinations with each other. I read a response by someone recently (maybe CWC??) that said that the m/f ratio is not important with schooling non-livebearers, but I don't remember what thread it was in.

Butters

When I first got all of my cherry barbs, they wre all peacful and cool with each other, almost shy of each other. Now I notice that they chase each other more, but there is absolutly no damage done. The males get frisky and chase the females, then they chase each other around, then the big fat female gets annoyed and chases everyone around till they all calm down! It's really amusing to watch because sometimes they will zip right past my cories and the cories will just stop whatever they are doing, blink, and they resume there scrounging around.... They are really amusing fish. I have 3 females and 2 males btw

Barbrella

The petstore clerk was wrong. Cherry barbs are one of the most unaggressive fish around, but the males can and do pester the females relentlessly.

This is why you need more females than males, so the same female is not being chased and harassed constantly. This is not aggression and there is no nipping of any kind, but it's stressful and exhausting for the "girls"!

With 5 males all trying to force 2 females to spawn, they will get no peace.

Jo3olous

you have a big tank anyway, go out there and by more females!

RandomKayos

Male/female ratio would only be a factor during spawning and in aquarium fish spawning is not usually mass timed. And the only way to prevent multiple males from wanting to spawn with the female that's ready would be to only keep one male in a school. Or, relax and watch your fish, If you should notice a harrasment issue you have several options. Perhaps only keeping male or female schools. But personally I would say just enjoy what you have and watch. I don't forsee any issues.

RK

cichlidlover

Ive never noticed any chasing. THere was so little going on I din't even know I had females and males until you said the difference! lol

Kashim

Thanks for all the replies. My cherries seem to be fine. There's no fighting at all. There is a chase occasionally, but it only lasts a few seconds and then they're friends again. In fact, one of my female cherries has become my favorite fish because of her interesting personality. She lives in and around a plastic tree with pine needle like leaves. She's always hiding in the branches or cleaning something off the tree (dunno what, there's no visible algae in my tank). I started to purposely sink some small flakes into the trees branches. Some of them get caught in the needle like leaves and are not easy to get to, but she will spend all day long cleaning every morsel out of those leaves. It's so much fun to watch her!