Cherry Barb is a Bully

[EvanWells]

Hello, this is my first post in the forum. I have a 29G Freshwater Tank. It is a lot of fun, ive had it for almost 2 months. It has 5 plants in it and is almost always crystal clear, thanks to the advice i've read on this site. I just picked up 2 Blood Red Sword tail fish today. Which means my tank now has the following stock:

Plecostomus x 1
Golden Snail x 1
Mystery Snail x 1
Tiger Barb x 4
Cherry Barb x 1
Zebra Danio x 2
Blue Coral Dwarf gourami x 2
Blood Red Sword-tail x 2

My cherry barb wont stop nipping at one of te sword tails. I need that to stop or I will have to get rid of him. I aint got no time for a bully! lol Please help!

[ImACoolguy]

Cherry barbs like groups of 5+ as do danios, other barbs, tetras, etc...

Get him some friends or remove him.


Caleb

[EvanWells]

Originally Posted by ImACoolguy

Cherry barbs like groups of 5+ as do danios, other barbs, tetras, etc...

Get him some friends or remove him.


Caleb

Okay thanks! I'll consider that. I had 4 Cherry barbs in there. But i failed with my heater, live and learn I guess. It hit 89 degrees and they all died. I was so dissapointed in myself.

[ImACoolguy]

Originally Posted by EvanWells

Okay thanks! I'll consider that. I had 4 Cherry barbs in there. But i failed with my heater, live and learn I guess. It hit 89 degrees and they all died. I was so dissapointed in myself.

It happens sometimes. I had a heater failed and my tank hit 93 degrees. Luckily my fish liked the heat.


Caleb

[TMRC Exotics]

The cherry barbs will cool down a lot with a group, I keep 8 at the moment. Another key step is to balance a minimum 2:1 female to male ratio.. 3:1 is better. So if you have two males I'd keep 4-6 females.

In proper groups they can be very calm, I have no issues with nipping or chasing.

I've also heard of keeping all males and no females with success but I've never tried it personally.