Sex ratios in the aquarium

[knotty47]

Hi,

just a quick question for you pros, does the ratio of males to females in my tank matter? I'll be slightly more specefic. I have a 20 gallon tank, its been established for 9 months now. Ammonia, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are low. It is stocked with 10 tiger barbs, a mix of normal and green tigers (still haven't lost one yet, i thought i was a shoe in for death as i stumbled into this hobby lol). When i purchased my fish i didn't really give much thought to there sexing, but after some close inspection i have found i have 1 male to 9 females (lucky boy!). Is there any consequences to this situation? As it is there is little in fighting in the group and everything looks fine, but i'm a curious fella and thought that someone could shed some light on to this for me.
Any help greatly appreciated, Alex.

 

[CaitxSith]

i dunno... i heard most fish males get aggressive to females sometimes... thats when u don't have many females

 

[dr_sudz]

I have found that more females to males usually works really well. Because they are tiger barbs, I think that the male's aggression is dealt over the whole so that is why you are having great sucsess. My general rule is 2 females on a male. usually less agression that way. Or go all female but again it depends on the speices of fish you have.

 

[knotty47]

Thanks so far! specifically i'm wondering about the general level of competitiveness between the females. As is mentioned above its usually males fighting it out, but can this also occur within in a large female group? Is the idea of adding another male likely to cause more problems?

 

[Grundy]

With barbs, I have not seen any significant aggressive behavior between females. I keep about 2-3 females per male, if possible, and this has worked out well for me. Please see my sig - this seems to be working for different barb species as well, not just tigers. Good luck!

 

[knotty47]

thanks again everyone.

Alex