Odessa Barb Temperament / Behavior - Updated

[Mathieu]

"Temperament / Behavior : The Odessa Barb can be aggressive with other Odessas in the same tank and it is usually the males bickering over a dominance position within the school. "

I have a school of 10 male Odessa barbs in my 80gallon tank with 1 bristle nose pleco atm. All they do is hide and barely come out to eat. when they come out another fish will chase them (they all look the same so can't tell if its the same fish doing it or not) will they settle down or do I have to take the dominant ones out? (I think its almost impossible to single one out and remove him) this triggered after I chased 4 zebra danios around to remove them... they've been in the tank since Thursday.

I added pictures of where they hide sorry for the quality had to boost the contrast to see something.

ammonia - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 10ppm
ph - 8.2
temp - 75f

 

[Sacksteder kid]

I would give them a couple of days and see if they don't even out. I would try to find some distinguishing mark on the chasing fish. Good luck!

 

[Genghis Karp]

They might need a week to settle in. You have a good number, I've not found them to be massively skittish once settled and not really had a dominance problem either. They're very pretty but don't grow very quickly. Are your lights really bright? Might be a problem if so. You might need to put something in the tank to take their mind off each other and make them school together for security. A couple of appropriate Cichlids might help.

 

[Sina-key]

I read somewhere that you must have 3 female per male ratio in your tank not sure it is true or not

 

[Mathieu]

I read somewhere that you must have 3 female per male ratio in your tank not sure it is true or not

All male tanks are fine but if you are mixing them then I would atlease do a 1:2

They might need a week to settle in. You have a good number, I've not found them to be massively skittish once settled and not really had a dominance problem either. They're very pretty but don't grow very quickly. Are your lights really bright? Might be a problem if so. You might need to put something in the tank to take their mind off each other and make them school together for security. A couple of appropriate Cichlids might help.

I will be adding different fish. And ligjt arnt too bring and they still do it when the light are off :/

I would give them a couple of days and see if they don't even out. I would try to find some distinguishing mark on the chasing fish. Good luck!

Hope it doesn't get to that it would be a pain

 

[Mathieu]

recent post-- Odessa Barb Temperament / Behavior
^^
"I have a school of 10 male Odessa barbs in my 80gallon tank with 1 bristle nose pleco atm. All they do is hide and barely come out to eat. when they come out another fish will chase them (they all look the same so can't tell if its the same fish doing it or not) will they settle down or do I have to take the dominant ones out? (I think its almost impossible to single one out and remove him) this triggered after I chased 4 zebra danios around to remove them... they've been in the tank since Thursday."
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I had 2 deco in the tank a rock that made a cave and another fake white stone where they were hiding in under and behind. today I noticed that 2 darker colored (assuming they have that nice color because they are less stressed) odessas were in that cave and when others got close they came out and chased them so I removed all decorations/ hiding spots in the tank and now they are calm and are chasing very very little... should I leave them like that for now so they can calm down as they are the only ones in the tank apart from the pleco.

other option like someone said in the first post adding something that will make them school? my plan was to have a rainbow shark in the tank soon would this work?

 

[OdessaDad]

I have a 55 gallon tank with few hiding places, just lots of floating dwarf water lettuce and a few cave like decorations. With 30 Odessa barbs and 5 long fin rosey barbs its a continuous swarm of semI schooling fish. They all get along well. None of the Odessa barbs bothers another.

I think the dearth of places to hide and be protective of may have something to do with it. There are however, a lot of places to explore which they use when it isn't feeding time and the tank is calm.

They find the dwarf pleco quite entertaining when he comes out. Crowding about a safe 5 inches away and hovering to see what he is doing.

I love these fish. Very inquisitive, and always watching for my appearance in the room.