best fish for a 45 gallon tank?

[wildcatcrzy]

I am still cycling the tank but I found my daughter is more apt to be patient when we sit and discuss what fish we are going to get. Right now I can't budge her from her beloved rainbow shark (I know tank is a little small). We have discussed tiger barbs, corys, and ghourimas. I don't want to get her hopes up again so can anything be put in with the shark and what can? How many?

 

[jcolon]

If she insists on a Rainbow Shark ... which is a little less territorially aggressive than RTS's ... then TigerBarbs will work fine ... between 6-8 to start with, another 2-3 a few weeks later.

Are you going with regular TigerBarbs ... or are you also considering the Albino's and or the Green TigerBarbs? A mixture of all three really give the
tank some color.

BTW ... an alternative to TigerBarbs are BlackRuby Barbs. They look similar to TB's ... but are not as fiesty. The males develop an incredible ruby red (head) and black (body)color during breeding. The females stay a honey like brown with black stripes. BRB's are definitely worth a look.

You'll still want to establish territories for the Rainbow shark with plants, rocks, caves and DW.

 

[ashleynicole]

rainbow sharks are labeled as 'semi-aggresive'. That being said, when I was new to the hobby I had one in a 55 gallon along with cory's, assorted tetra's, angelfish, a common pleco etc. As I began learning more about the hobby and researching I realized that my tank was a bit small. However, the thought of taking these fish back to the local fish store and that any novice could buy them made me sad, so I kept him, and he thrived until I took the tank down and gave the fish away to someone who had a larger established aquarium.

I think you have a lot of options, and you could always have that as an excuse to buy a bigger tank .

 

[wildcatcrzy]

I didn't know there were that many types of barbs. That will give us more to Google and pics to look at. She's living on pics right now lol. I kinda jumped the gun and had to take her fish back. Needless to say she was kinda mad at me.

 

[jcolon]

I didn't know there were that many types of barbs. That will give us more to Google and pics to look at. She's living on pics right now lol. I kinda jumped the gun and had to take her fish back. Needless to say she was kinda mad at me.

Oh ... there's quite a few Barbs alright. The three types of TB's in a tank is a great sight! The BRB's are very active ... but you want Males so you can get that great red/black color. A second alternative that resembles TB's are 5 Banded Barbs (impossible to find ... I've been looking for months!) they are also active barbs. Either way ... all three of these Barbs only get 2.5 inches max so outgrowing the 45 will not happen.

Good luck!!

 

[ashleynicole]

I just put cherry barbs in my 29 gallon. The females are less colorful but it is important to have a higher ratio of females to males. They are very active and my 2 year old keeps calling them "Nemo".... even though they don't really look like Nemo, lol They aren't as nippy as the tiger barbs. I've also had rosey barbs and long fin rosey barbs in the past and enjoyed them as well.

 

[wildcatcrzy]

Can an angel fish go with these?

 

[ashleynicole]

It is not a good idea to put angels with tigerbarbs due to the fact that tigerbarbs are nippy and will nip at the long fins on an angel. Some would argue that if you keep the tiger barbs in a large enough group (at least 8-10), that they will stay busy enough with each other and leave the angels alone. When I had angels, I chose rosey barbs, cherry barbs, and serpae tetra's. small breed tetra's can get eaten by a large angel. Angels also like soft more acidic water, which is difficult to achieve when you are using tap water. The only way I was successful with angels was with a lot of driftwood and adding peat moss to my filter media. This made my water kind of brownish tan, but it was clear and really pretty and the angels loved it.

 

[wildcatcrzy]

I think I'll hold on the angel fish and stick with things more in my skill level. I already messed this up once, don't wanna screw it up again.