Oops - I really dislike that edit disappears after so many minutes. Nick is reporting more females than males (which is the reverse of what I noted above).
Cherry Barbs
- Thread starter SchizotypalVamp
- Start date
No, you are completely right that my evidence is as anecdotal as that of others. If you read again you will notice that what I actually challenged is only the statement that you should keep more female cherry barbs than male ones. You suggested this, but I don't see anywhere that you said that having the opposite ratio was detrimental. From my own one data point, I don't observe that it is detrimental. I haven't read any other report that it was detrimental. And this, taken together, makes the suggestion to keep more females than males hang somewhere in the air.
My own conclusion was that, from what I read and from my own singular experience, the sex ratio in groups of cherry barbs doesn't matter, if the group is big enough. That's the only conclusion I can draw from the data I've seen.
I'm not that quick with generalizations of anecdotal experiences. One example I can give you is that, in my personal experience, the serpae tetras that I had didn't nip each other and didn't bother any other fish. I would never generalize this observation, though, because I have seen enough people complain about serpae tetras in community tanks. The difference in the case of cherry barbs is that I haven't seen these complaints.
Yes, but he also had the aggression problems when he had male/female ratios similar to what you suggested, which means that this is no solution to aggression.
Sex ratios in many species are adaptive. Many vertebrates produce male-biased offspring in stress situations (deer, wolves, etc.). You probably know that in many species, sex is determined by temperature and other outside influences. But that's really irrelevant for our discussion, because I didn't suggest a male-biased population for cherry barbs, but only claimed that it wasn't detrimental.
And, as experienced fishkeeper, I don't have to tell you that there are quite a few standard aquarium fish (like cories, some tetras) that should have (at least) one female + 2 males as spawning groups. Generalizations and simplifications are sometimes okay, but I like to have them well founded.
I still maintain that more females to males, especially in a smaller tank (this is a thread about 10 gallon tanks, right?), is in general better. The vast majority of the folks I know who have had problems with cherry barbs in small tanks have more males than females.
A large group will help disperse aggression in most schooling or semi-schooling fish (actually - in most fish species - otherwise nothing would survive at most LFSs). However, you need the tank space to keep a large enough group...and this is still a thread about 10 gallon tanks. If your tank is big enough to have sufficient numbers of cherry barbs I'll agree with you that having more males isn't as much a problem because the males have more space to "disappear" into when the chasing becomes too annoying.
I'd think the point is just as likely, or more likely, to be that he had insufficient numbers of cherry barbs for a schooling fish.
Cories are weird...they're more of the exception to the rule as far as I know. Maybe they're normal for catfish breeding...but I've never really been into cories and catfish in general (don't me wrong - I like them, but have never tried to breed them or focused on them). I've bred varying tetras, barbs, anabantoids, live bearers, and cichlids over the years, and I can't think of any of those that don't either pair breed or have a higher female to male ratio.
Obviously, we've had varying experiences with cherry barbs, but back in your original post you mention that very few people try different ratios and report the results...I've posted my experiences with multiple attempts of keeping them - granted it's not a large sample, but it's the largest posted to this thread yet.
Eric
Honestly, more females to males seems to work in most of the animal kingdom where social groups are involved. Maybe there was a militaristic feminine takeover your tank? Lol.
?Sure. But he had two groups of one male with several females, and some people suggested he should have more females, and I didn't see how this would help with the male terrorizing the females and the other fish in the tank.
I actually thought of an example with birds here. In several pheasant species, the male will kill the female during or before mating if you only have a single couple. He needs a second male as opponent at whom to direct his aggression.
Anyway, the larger group obviously solved the problems
.Sure. Cories are very low in aggression. Obviously, they need at least some competition to get their hormones going.
That's appreciated. But did you post any negative results, which means combinations that didn't work out?
