bully rosy barb problem

[rosie]

hi all,
i've posted a question once before- thank you for the help earlier.

i have a new dilemma. in my 30g tank i had 2 male rosy barbs. one was constantly terrorizing the other. recently it seemed to become seriously incessant. the inferior one developed ich. i started ich treatment and after a few days the ich was a little worse. so i put the aggro one in my little hospital tank to relieve the sick one of his bullying. ich is already lessening. but i wonder what i can do to change the relationship between those 2 so they can both live happily in the same tank.
do y'all think i should get more rosy barbs to increase their shoal? barbs are shoalng fish right? so maybe i have too few. should i get female ones? they're the biggest fish in the tank. should i try a new tank mate thats bigger? i had an albino rainbow shark and while it was around, it seemed to create a nice balance. but it jumped out and now i feel my tank is too small for one of those, unfortunately.
would love to hear feedback/ideas... thanks!

[Tigerlily]

Hi Rosie:

I've never kept rosy barbs, but if they are anything like tiger barbs, increasing the school will help with the agression. I had only 3 tigers when I started out and the largest picked on the other two and really stressed them out. When I increased the group to 7, the stress went away. They still chase each other but no one is picked on disproportionately and they seem more playful than mean.

I'm not sure gender matters all that much - although my most agressive fish is the largest male... my least aggressive is the largest female. I am pretty sure that I have 4 male and 3 female... just by chance. I've never heard or read that there should be a particular ratio (like livebearers need a 3:1 ratio) though. Maybe someone else knows more about that....?

[Tigerlily]

BTW - this all assumes that adding a bunch more fish won't overstock your tank, causing a whole different kind of stress! You don't say what else is in there...

HTH

[rosie]

thanks tigerlily! yea so far all i have are the 2 rosy barbs, 3 little tiger barbs and a little algae eater. so i think there's still room to increase both schools of barbs. so i think i'll get more tigers too. yay! now i'm all excited to get new fish! thanks again!

[PlatyLady]

My LFS says that rosy barbs should be kept in at least groups of three to even out aggression. I only have one and at first he terrorized the other fish. When he got used to the tank, he was still hyper, but not mean. He's sort of like a fish on speed - not out to hurt anybody, but don't get in his way or he'll knock you over!

[Terry]

rosie does your lfs only stock male rosy barbs, they do better when they are in pairs.
They are nothing like tiger barbs in there temperament, they are far more placid and they like the company of females. they are still like other fish and like to be in groups, but they really like mixed groups and that way they will really show there colours.
To sex them firstly, the fins of the male are pink and the tips of the dorsal are black. In the female the fins are almost colorless. I have also found that the males are sometimes more golden in colour were as the female is more yellowish.

HTH.