7 Tiger Barbs with...

[Shagmaster]

30 gal Hex flat-back. Sand and some gravel for substrate. Fake plants. Current residents are 7 Tiger Barbs.
Q) What fish would be good for cleanup? Needs to be able to live with the barbs. (Barbs are actually pretty mellow, they lived for 2 months with my 2 dwarf gourami and didnt nip a single fin! )
Would some type of shrimp be ok? Or would they become food?
Thanks,

BTW, Tank will soon be upgraded to a 46 bow.

 

[jm1212]

the shrimp will be a snack. tiger abrbs tend to stay around the mid-bottom reigons of a tank, so i dont think that a catfish such as a corydoras would be a good choice. if you need a bottom feeder, go with a small, tough pleco.

you should probably get some more tiger barbs to even out aggression.

 

[fish_freak]

Cories should be fine there tough buggers and I highly doubt the barbs would bother them. IME ther are most often mid level swimers but will explore the whole tank. Also I highly doubt the the barbs would be able to eat some of the larger shrimp like ghost but you never know they may just pick at it untill they break the carapace and they can get to the flesh but I dont know if this is possible. I certainly isn't possible for a 3" barb to eat a 2 inch shrimp whole.
I would get some mid sized cories though maybe Julli's and they should do the clean up job well but be sure to supplement there food with shrimp pellets and other treats as left overs wont be enough.

 

[Shagmaster]

Would a Clown Pleco work? The petco near me has a few of these. Like $10 each.

 

[lovemybarbs]

Tiger barbs do not touch bamboo shrimp. I had two for quite a while before the power outage. I never saw one nip.