New guy here, need 300 gallon stocking advice

[mikec123]

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?

[Autumnsky]

Is your tank cycled still?

Tiger barbs are kind of jerks and it is important to have more females to males ratio. Say 2-3 females to one male. This helps keep their minds on chasing the females and since there are a bunch of females then their passion is spread over the larger number, and 2-3 males aren't chasing just one female.

I would also keep an eye on the water quality. Even if it IS cycled, you likely do not have as many BB / beneficial bacteria built up if your previous stock amount was low. Now with so many more fish and feeding it is over taxed / not enough BB yet to keep up.

Also loss of tails can be a sign bacterial infection.

Since you are getting a bunch of fish all together you are kinda using your tank as the quarantine.

Every time you add new fish it increases the possibility of a disease coming into the tank which could wipe out most or all the fish!

[Fishlegend]

An arrowana would get rid of your barbs....

[mikec123]

Originally Posted by Fishlegend

An arrowana would get rid of your barbs....

Haha, the guy I bought the tank from had an arrowana in it, said it was built for them, 3' wide and 7' long.

[mikec123]

thanks for the tips. I believe the tank is cycled, we check the water with some regularity and had the LFS check it too. We had some nitrite present for a few days a couple weeks before getting the fish but it and ammonia have been zero since then, assuming the filter processed it and that means it cycled.

As far as a bacterial infection, the tetras all came from the same batch of fish and same tank, just 4 days apart, they were still looking good in the store when we brought in the dead ones so thinking we didn't get sick fish. Would bacterial fin rot be conclusive visually after the fish died. Either way I will have a quarantine tank in play soon, just gotta get a space set up for it, seems like I could use for water change conditioning when not using for quarantine.

[Autumnsky]

You might be able to watch the fish for awhile and see if the Barbs are chomping the Tetras or just bumping them.

ID'ing infection after death - fish would likely have other fin edges with a bit of white or clear around the edges.

[Fishlegend]

If I was you I’d do only barbs or no barbs

[Ulrichsd]

Tiger barbs are my favorite fish I've never kept I'd consider clown loaches to go with the tiger barbs, you have a great tank size for them.

[Fishlegend]

Yes and clowns are just like tiger barbs they need schools