Seeking advice about barbs

[FloydCrook]

Hi,
I have a Rena Filstar XP3 Canister Filter and I am in the process of setting up a 75 gallon tank, 48"L x 18"W x 21"H. I want to put Green Tiger Barbs, Tiger Barbs, Albino Tiger Barbs, Black Ruby Barbs, 2 to 3 Zebra Loaches or Burmese Border Loaches, and a Bristlenose Pleco in this tank, and I will use a 90 pound bag of Arkansas stream pea pebbles (small size naturally rounded gravel, sanitized for aquarium use) for a substrate . I may also put a Zoomed 226 rotating powerhead on one end of the tank for increased circulation and aeration (with a sponge filter?). Anyway what I would like to ask is how many barbs can I put in this tank and still have them get reasonably huge? Of course I would like them all to get 3 inches. I would like to put in the same number of each kind of barb, I may limit myself to only the green, albino, and tigers if that's what it takes, but I really would like to add the black rubies to add some more variation. I once had a couple of each of these types of barbs in a twenty gallon tank and they were stunning and cool to watch. I was considering anywhere from 4 to 7 of each type of barb, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, how safe is shipment of tropical fish, etc.? Please reply to Floyd_Crook@hotmail.com, thanks, Floyd

 

[tropicfishman]

email sent!

 

[FloydCrook]

thanks for your reply, I only expect them to get 3" though, but to me that's huge in comparison to the size you usually see in the pet stores. So seven would all get full size? Have you raised these barbs before? About the loaches, I wonder which type would be better, the zebras or the burmese borderlines(poka-dot loach). I read these should be kept in a shoal of at least 3. I am not sure of how big they get though or how many (say 4 if I limit my barbs to seven each) would be too many.

 

[tropicfishman]

I've raised alot of barbs in my day lol I'm not tofamiliar with loches though

http://www.loaches.com/species-index

try this iste they all kinds of info!