ANGELA

Hi All,

OK I have lots of questions, my roommate has 46 gal tank and I have put 2 Crystal Platy's in the tank. I am thinking of starting my own tank and have done some research on what types of fish can go with my platy's I call them Felix and Oscar(from the odd couple) I have found out that I can put Barbs in the tank with them and it was suggested that I put 5-6 Barbs now here is the question.

Do they have to be all the same type of Barb?

I want a tank with color and have chosen Rosy Barbs, Green Tiger Barbs and Cherry longfin Barbs. I don't know what size tank I'm going to be getting I'm still in the research faze. My roommate has suggested that I take over his 46 gal tank in a few months and he would increase the size of his tank.

I you the members can help me with my research it would be greatly appreciated


Angela

Tazmiche

hi, i am no expert AT ALL but i do have barbs ( naughty little beasts and i love them)

I started with 5 cherry b's and 6 minnows. Then added checkered barb's. I would say from my experience and from advice given to me that you should definately get a school of the same type. Mine now mix as a school when the mood fits but they do stick to their own kind MOST of the time.
I have to say that i never hear much about Checkered barbs but they are lovely, calmer than the Cherry b's and the male has lovely orange fins with his Check body. I'll try to get a pic of them to post.

Butterfly

Yep barbs and tetras both tend to be a lot less nippy and snippy if they have several of their own kind to pal around with. So I would say three or more of each kind would be good.
Carol

ANGELA

Thanx for the replies right now this is the list of fish I'm interested in putting in the tank

I'm thinking 3 of each type of barb Green Tiger, Cherry or Rosy and definitely a longfin Rosy.

I'm also considering Crowntail betta, Lyretail Swordtail, Clown Loaches and maybe a few Tetra, I'm concerned about the Tetra because my research says not to put them with bigger fish, which I don't understand because in the current tank we have feeder guppies and the larger fish don't bother them at all.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Angela

Butterfly

Love your list of fish , all good fish but... sometimes they don't mix I'm afraid the Betta's beautiful tail would be too tempting for the barbs to resist. Most other fish are usually such aggressive eaters the Betta doesn't get enough to eat.
Your tank isn't really big enough for Clown loaches, they are best kept in groups of three or better and they can get 12 inches or better. They need lots of room to swim and the more buddies the better.
Carol

ANGELA

In my roomates tank currently there are
1 Rainbow Shark which chases the Platies sometimes
3 Tiger Barbs which don't bother any body from what I have observed.
2 Upside down Cats which hide almost all the time
1 4 Line Cat which only comes out from under the driftwood when the light is out or feeding time.
1 Striped Loach (he lost one a couple of weeks ago)
2 Diving Frogs
2 Clown Loaches about 2 inches in length
1 Clown Placo which hides most of the time but just in this past week has come out from under the wood to lay on top
5 Bala Sharks which I like alot.
And of course my 2 Crystal Red Platies.


When I checked the compatibility charts the Betta was listed as OK with the Platies and all the fish I said I was interested in were on the same list. So I thought they would all be OK together.

Looks like I need to check each one separately. Like I said earlier still in the research stages so I have at least 4-5 months to get this together the proper way..

Again thanx for all your input.

Angela

Butterfly

yep research is one of the fun parts of setting up a tank.
Here is an interesting article to read while you do research
http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/index.php?topic=5338.0
Carol

Tazmiche

My cherry's killed 2 of my guppies when i was new to fish keeping. Ate their tails! Not a nice sight so be careful re a betta.
As much as i love barbs i would not say mixing the school would be ok, Tigers are not good buddies for others!
You may have success but have a rescue tank ready!

COBettaCouple

sounds like a great tank - we'd love to see it and especially the platys. i don't know about barbs with platys, but other livebearers would get along with platys as well as cory cats or oto cats.

Kevin

does your roomate know that bala sharks can grow up to 13 inches, loaches up to 12 in. and plecos can grow 2 almost two feet

he had better be getting a REALLY big tank

ecnaj143

I've recently noticed, clown loaches are getting smaller in size, same with bala sharks. You have large ones that get huge, but some that stay small. Haven't figured it out, but dude at my LFS said he has been noticing the samething.