55 gallon stocking question

[dorkfish]

what schools did you mix?.

I mixed neons and zebra danios. Before I sperated them, the neons would spin around biting at each other. After seperaing them, the neons a lot more peacefull towads eacch other, only rrarely would you see them "spinning around and biting t each other. Didn't see much of a difference in the danio behavior, but htey don't seem as "hyper-active" anymore. However, all this seperation happened during a move, and I lost 3 danios (had six, I suspect they jumped ship as I never found any courpses).

I'm still mixing beunos aires and black skirt tetras. I had them seperated before, and the black skirt tetras seemed a lot calmer and weren't feeding so aggressively (something they have to do if they wan't to eat - buenos aires tetras are aggressive feeders that even splash water out of the tank while there eating). I'm hoping to seperate them soon as well.

Personally I'm wondering how you know your fish are displaying "normal" behavior, unless you had previously kept them in seperate tanks. Although I have to agree that schooling fish will do "fine" with other schooling fish in the tank, I don't nessisarily think that's what's best for them, but I won't go around telling people that they absolutely have to seperate there schooling fish in order for them to live happy and healthy lives.

 

[xiaosong]

With how aggresive tiger barbs are known to be, don't you think they can hold their own to a red tailed shark?

I'm just worried about the rainbows... are the fast enough or aggresive enough to not be picked on in a community tank?

And its not that much of a community tank, I mean, besides the red tailed shark which is pretty aggresive, it is pretty much just a tiger barb tank.

If the rainbows and the tiger barb inhabit the same area of the tank, can you guys suggest some other type of fish? I was thinking zebra danios but the rainbows are much more colorful. I've read of people keeping paradise fish with tiger barbs, anyone with experience about that?

 

[gagaliya]

12 Tiger barbs (mix of regular, green and albino)
4 or 5 Rainbows (Boeseman or Banded)
1 Red Tailed Shark

i would get

12 tiger barbs of the same style(regular is best imo), they look much better in a school.

6 boeseman rainbows(6 better for a school), those get big though 5-6", you may want to replace with a school of rosy or gold barbs instead.

replace red tailed shark with a rainbow shark. Much less aggressive, red tails are usually psycho fish.

 

[xiaosong]

Would that be overstocking my 55 gallon?

 

[travis]

dorkfish, i keep all my small fish in a Q tank for up to a month before they go in a bigger tank. with the exception of the black neons and the gold barbs, i have seen all of those schools alone for about 2-3 weeks.

as you said its hard to determine whats "normal", but what i can say is they appear to be acting the same and that i havent lost a fish since i removed the school of tiger barbs.


and no, 12 tiger barbs and 6 bosemani rainbows would definitely not be overstocking a 55 gallon. however it is probably not a good idea because bosemani rainbows definitely do not get to 5-6 inches long. australian rainbows maybe but bosemanis are more near the 4-5 inch range at their absolute max. ive seen bosemanis over 6 years old (kept for 6 years, probably bought at about 2 inches) that are about 4 inches. obviously there are a lot of variables but i would not count on having 6 inch bosemanis.

i think that tiger barbs and bosemanis are not a good mix. tiger barbs are not usually a good mix with anything close to their size (within an inch), IME, but as always you could find a good match or just get lucky.