|  |  | 
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| New Tank Help
I have 3 albino tiger barbs and 3 regular tiger barbs in a 20 gallon tank. The lady at the pet store said that as long as I have 6 of the same type (barbs) that they shouldnt fight. Thats not the case. The 3 reg. tiger barbs fight each other constantly. The 3 albino do not fight that much, but they do stick together. I added 2 rainbow sharks last night, but they seem to be getting chased back into hiding everytime they come out by the tiger barbs. I am thinking of taking the albino barbs back and getting 3 more tiger barbs. This would give me 6 tiger barbs and 2 rainbow sharks. Does you think this will cut down on all the fighting? | 
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| Welcome to Fishlore!
The 2 rainbow sharks will eventaully try to kill eachother. You should only keep 1 rainbow shark, or RTS per tank. | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanda  Welcome to Fishlore!
The 2 rainbow sharks will eventaully try to kill eachother. You should only keep 1 rainbow shark, or RTS per tank. | I really think the people at petsmart need some more training. She said to make sure I got 2 RS's so that one wouldnt get picked on by the TB's. Then she said that a 20 gallon would be plenty of room for the RS's. Once I got home and started looking around, I realized that our tank is not enough for 2 of them. I may take 1 shark back, and just have 6 tiger barbs and 1 rainbow shark. | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| NEVER listen to the sales people at Petsmart.
More times than not, they are just selling for the $$.
It's better to research a lot before adding anything.
I'm actually in the researching phase for 2 tanks right now. | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanda NEVER listen to the sales people at Petsmart.
More times than not, they are just selling for the $$.
It's better to research a lot before adding anything.
I'm actually in the researching phase for 2 tanks right now. | Yeah, they train their employees to "sound" smart. It works on someone like me who had no idea about keeping fish. Oh well, do you think the set-up I described will work fine? Is this too much for a 20g tank or will I be able to add one or 2 more? | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| 6 barbs & 1 RS would be pushing the capacity of a 20 gal. But with regular water changes, it should be okay.
Is your tank cycled? | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| yes. I got the tank from a friend. He left all his rocks, filter pump, heater, and decorations in the tank. I filled up the tank, got a new filter(he threw the old one out), and let it run for 2 days before adding fish. I tested the water 3 times b4 adding them and 3 times since. The pH shows a little on the high side (7.4 ish) but everything else seems to be fine.
Last edited by corym; January 24th, 2009 at 02:39 PM.
| |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| What are the water readings? | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| i used some test strips from petsmart. They don't show the readings, just color codes for the "safe zones" I also added a PH monitor that hangs in the tank and keeps a constant eye on the PH level. | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| Test strips aren't the most reliable test kits.
The API Master Kit is what's most widely used on Fishlore. | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| ok, i will pick that up when I get my next check. The strips were all I could afford this week. Thanks for all the advice, I will probably be on here picking your brain again before long! | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| No problem! 
I like helping out other fish enthusiests. | |
| | |
January 24th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| If you just put the tiger barbs in its normal for them to fight. They will do that for a couple of days until a pecking order is established. Then they will just swim around together without much hassle. You'll notice that if you rescape your aquarium that the barbs will get aggressive with one another again. | |
| | |
January 25th, 2009
|
| | Fish Bum
| I have nine of them. 6 regs 2 greens and 1 albino. the albinos are defiantly not as aggressive in my tank its the greens that chase every one. Its normal for some squabbles its when there fin nipping to the point off damage that u should be concerned. | |
| | |
January 25th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| you'll need to return both rainbow sharks unless you plan on getting a bigger tank, they get up to 6 inches and i think they need at least a 55 gallon tank, but i could be wrong about that, maybe a 29 | |
| | |
January 26th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Ok, I am going to get rid of 1 shark. Now I have another problem. I feed the barbs flake food and the sharks get shrimp pellets. The problem is, when I put the pellets in, the barbs eat the majority of them before they reach the bottom, even when I am feeding the flake food at the same time. I am just not sure if the sharks are getting any food and that kind of worries me. Any suggestions? | |
| | |
January 27th, 2009
|
| | Fish Helper
| Feed the flakes first then sneak in some pellets in at the end of the flakes. I have to do that every day in the opposite order to feed my barbs in a cichlid tank. Otherwise the cichlids eat everything! | |
| | | |
