mikec123
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hello, I've been keeping fish for many years, never anything complicated, always freshwater. I had a 300 gallon freshwater tank with goldfish and plecos in there for the past 20 years. All the original fish have grown old and passed on as of a few months ago so time for a tank makeover. My kids wanted colorful schools with lots of fish so we visited the local fish store and came home with a dozen Tiger Barbs, 6 Cardinal Tetras, & a couple little plecos. The LFS's opinion was that all would be fine if we had 6 or more Tiger Barbs, they'd chase each other around and leave the Tetras alone. No issues at first but the tank still looked empty, so 4 days later we got a bunch more fish, total of 24 Tiger Barbs, 30 Cardinal Tetras, and 3 plecos. Within a day we had 9 dead Cardinal Tetras, most missing tail fins. Gave the fish store a call and ended up bringing in the bodies and a water sample, making sure there were no issues with water or disease. Verdict was our Tiger Barbs are jerks and killing the Tetras, fish store will refund us for dead fish but isn't interested in taking either school of the fish back. We are down to 14 Cardinal Tetras today, do we have any options besides rehoming one or the other schools of fish? Assuming we keep the Tiger Barbs what are some good tank mate recommendations?