male:female ratios

[cowfish7]

To make room for my new FW puffers, I had to move a male cherry barb into another tank (29gal). Now I have 2 males and 2 females in one tank, with a few other fish. The barbs have all been chasing each other around, and have been flashing fins, etc. There are plants for hiding, and I turned the light off.
I wonder if these guys will settle down after a day or two, or if the 2 males will be a problem? I have been keeping an eye on them, but I always worry about what goes on at night.

cowfish7

 

[freshwatergal]

Maybe you should get a few more females. Because the ratio is 2:2 they don't really have that much to keep them "occupied".

 

[ferret]

Except for SA cichlids off hand (They usually form pairs), I believe the general ratio for most fish is 1:2 ratio, 1 male per 2 females.

 

[TankGirl]

For cherry barbs I have found that there is less nippiness and chasing when there are more females than males, but that was just for me, and that was assuming that I was positive about the gender! For a group of 7 fish I was pretty sure there were 2 males, and things seemed cool that way.

BTW, welcome to AA!

 

[tkos]

Yes, for most of the smaller fish have at least 1:2. More is always best as then the females don't get harrassed to death. Generally the wekaer male will be kicked out of the group and end up getting really stressed.

 

[Sati]

You could also try the rearrange the tank trick.

 

[cowfish7]

Good point about the stress. They all have their fins after a day together, but it looks like I will have to add some females so everybody stays happy. However, these fish are a few years old, so the new additions will be smaller and probably get picked on :?

 

[PlatyLady]

I don't know about barbs (I only have 1), but for my guppies and platies, I have ratios of at least 3 females to 1 male. For my platies, it's actually 6 females to 1 male. (Can you believe 7 females to 2 males wasn't good enough?! Those poor girls.)