New To Rosy Barbs

[MistaJones]

Thanks for accepting me. I'm not new to fish keeping but I'm new to rosy barbs.
I've had cichlids for over 10 years and recently decided to embark on some new (and less violent).
For the moment I have a group of 9 small (1.5-2 inch) rosy barbs in a 40 gallon long (4 foot).
Their only tank mates are 5 mystery snails for the moment. I think I'll let them grow out a bit and maybe do some planting before I decide if or what else I'll put in there. I kinda like species tanks.
So anyway I have 7 females and only 2 males. The males fight quite a bit.
Would you guys recommend a few more males to disperse the battles or are they pretty harmless?

 

[dojafish]

Barbs are feisty like that but it should be relatively harmless, especially since each boy has 3-4 girls to bother as well. If you notice any tears in the fins then it would be better to pick up two more boys to disperse the chasing, or you can do that anyway just to have a nicer display. I don't recall Rosy barbs being the nippy type but you never know with barbs (except Tiger Barbs.. definitely a nipper).

I personally enjoy barbs and their chasing behavior, not nearly as mean as cichlids, so it's definitely a change of pace lol. I'm starting to go the opposite way myself... had a lot of barbs, tetras, and general tropical communities and now I'm starting to dip into cichlids. Even though I thought I never would do cichlids after having very prolific Convict cichlids and an infestation of Tilapia... then I realized there's a lot more cool cichlids out there than I previously thought.

 

[MistaJones]

Thanks for the advice. They both have a few missing scales and one has a couple of slight tears in his fins but they seem to have calmed down for the moment. I'm guessing one has established dominance. I just got them on Tuesday.
I find barbs fascinating. Much more interesting than tetras.
I've tried tiger barbs with cichlids a couple of times and found them too overwhelming for peaceful cichilds and not tough enough for more aggressive ones.
These days I'm more inclined to species tanks. I think fish feel more at home and act more naturally. If I decide to go the route of a rosy barb species tank do you think 12 would be too many once they grow? My tank is a 4 foot 40 gallon...