20 gall stock rearrangement advice

[unknown_7]

Hello Everybody,

So I just re-did my 20 gall from scratch. I opted to do a semi-aggressive community tank this time, since I haven't done a community tank in awhile.

It's currently stocked with:

- 1 dwarf gourami
- 2 ruby barbs
- 3 tiger barbs (1 died from harassment)

My problem is this.

One of the tiger barbs are harassing the other two real bad and the one ruby barb is harassing the other real bad. So everyone, minus these two bad boys are clumped in a corner of the tank really stressed. I guess I was asking for it with the number of these fish that I bought. Lol. However, this tank is pretty boring so I was thinking of doing the following:

a) adding 2 more tiger barbs and 2 more rubies
b) adding a small school of serpaes
c) ditching the dwarf gourami and getting a krib or two
d) a combination of the above

However a) seems to be something that I will have to do inevitably.

I'm pretty sure I know what I'm gonna be hearing, but just to hear some other voice other than mine what do you all think?

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[rich311k]

Pick one kind of barb or the other and get at least 6. Get the gourami out of there they will rip his feelers to shreds. Other wise get a small group of tetras and the kribs and drop the barbs and gourami.

 

[unknown_7]

Thanks for your reply. Are you suggesting doing a species only then. Apparently from what I've read and experienced, if you have a decent amount of barbs 4-6 they don't bother others (fish or barbs).

 

[JustOneMore20]

20g is quite small for Tiger Barbs to be kept with a variety of other fish, IMO.

I suggest you choose either the Rubies or the Tiger Barbs and lose the Gourami. You could possibly have room for a single Dwarf Cichlid, like a Krib or Bolivian Ram if you have 6-8 Barbs. Even with 4-6 IMO, the Barbs would harass the Gourami. In a larger tank, with 8+ Barbs of one type, you might be able to get away with the Gourami/Barb combo, but a 20g is too small.

Otherwise, if you're partial to the Gourami, then lose the Barbs and get a school of Tetras or something more peaceful.

 

[unknown_7]

I figured that it would have to come to that.

Thank you all for your response.