Francisco

Ok so 2 questions. first, how can you tell if fish are stressed and not happy? Second, I got too many fish for my tank. 3 rosey barbs and 2 platies for my 6 gallon aquarium. The barbs are small (2-3 inchs). They all seem happy and active. no fin niping from the barbs. They dont act like they feel cramped, they all just swim around peacefully. None are too territorial. Are they all ok to keep? If not, what can i do? Well, i guess that was 3 questions. Oh well. Please help me out if ya can.

agabr123

if fish are stressed, they will be less active, hang around the bottom or top of the tank, not eat, hide a lot, and/or look as though they are breathing rapidly.

if this is an option for you, i would get a 20 gallon tank. the barbs really need to be in a school of six or more, so in order to get three more that would put you at between 12 and 18 inches of fish (depending on whether they get to two or three inches, which i'm not sure about) you can probably keep the 2 platies in the 6 gallon, but i'm not sure if they would prefer to be in a larger group or not. you might (and i really stress might) be able to put a 3rd platy in the 6 gallon if you are very diligent with your water changes, but again that might not be enough space. if the platies are happy with just the two of them, then just stick with two.

EDIT: actually, scratch that 3rd platy, they get a little bigger than i originally though. you're at max capacity with two really.

if you can't get a 20 gallon for whatever reason, then i would suggest taking some of the fish back to the store, or selling them on craigslist/aquabid/buy-sell-trade forum here, etc