Tropical Fish Forums

[Nomar18]

Hi All,
Have a 55 G with aquaclear 70 and emperor 280, 30% change weekly and:
kribensis pair (spawned once)
7 tiger barbs
1 pictus (~3'')
1 flying fox, small.

The tank has been peaceful, but during their time taking care of fry, the male krib attacked/injured the pictus. I removed the fry, and things are a little better...My plan was not to raise the fry. I think I just left them in there too long.

My point being...
1. I was thinking of possibly trading in the female...no fry means little to no aggression on my other fish. Could I add more pictus or any other community fish with no female in there?
2. Keep this set up and just be prepared to remove fry (possibly as frequently as every month)
3. Or get rid of both male and female and go with strictly community fish? (kind of a big change). If I had to do this I'd want color to go with barbs (serpae tetras? cherry barbs? ruby barbs?)

Adding 2 more pictus would be cool because I do like them and they do better in schools of 3 or more, but idk if it's possible with 55 G tank.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

JP

[jemsriki]

If your filtration is good, I think it's OK. As you pointed out, the loaches aren't as much of a bottom dweller as the other two and julii's and kuhli's are pretty small as far as bottom dwellers for 55's go. Yes, 6 kuhli's should be fine. I keep 6 if the striped and they are out and about all the time. Loaches do best in groups of 5 or more, so I would go ahead and get 2 more.