Heating a 75 gallon tank

NewFishFiend

Another question kind of offtopic, my male Tiger Barb chases my 2 females to the point of exhaustion. They will be breathing sooooo fast. I feel sorry for them. Is this aggression on his part, an attempt at mating, or abnormal?
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MoneyMitch

tiger barbs are very notorius for fin nipping or "aggression" them breathing fast is them showing signs of stress. stress leads fish to illness. so something is going to have to give either rehome him or them it will be a ongoing cycle and eventually they will get stressed to the point of disease. i think if you have 5 of so tigerbarbs their aggression tones down a bit but is still a issue in some tanks.

NewFishFiend

I had read they were aggressive. They r in the 30 gallon alone. Just the 3 of them. I had to get them away from my angels and tetras. Yet another fault of the petsmart fish people....
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NewFishFiend

We got the 75g planted. Fish suggestions to go with my 4 black neon tetras and 2 angelfish?

NewFishFiend

Pic of it

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Byron

Are you familiar with our fish profiles section? Second heading from the left in the blue bar across the top of the page. Each species has information on numbers required of that species, minimum tank sizes, etc. If the name shades you can click it for the profile.

If you check Tiger Barb you will see it recommends no fewer than 8 in the group. This may minimize internal fin nipping. The profile also gives a 30g tank as the minimum for a group of 8. So if you like the TB, get more of them and keep them in the 30g but on their own. The only other alternative is to re-home them back to the store or another aquarist. They must have a group before any other fish should be put with them, aside from tank space. And they should never be combined with sedate fish or those with long fins, like angelfish, but I realize you are aware of this.

Byron

Back to the temperature question, with these fish you do not need it as warm as 79/80F. I mentioned the profiles in the previous post, and the temperature range for each species is included. Note that this is the range within which the fish will manage. The middle of the range is usually best on a permanent basis. The higher the temperature, the harder a fish has to work physically to "live" normally. They will be much healthier at lower rather than higher temperatures.

So for angelfish that are tank raised (which those you buy in most stores will be) a temp around 76-77F is OK. And most of the tetra will be better around this temp too; some even lower.

You asked about other fish; corys for the substrate would work (and they too prefer it cooler). The Black Neon Tetra is a shoaling fish, so more here too. Linear tetra can sometimes become food for angelfish when mature, but as you have the 4 now you should get more, I would say for a total around 9+. This will also help to avoid fin nipping which can occur with any tetra in the presence of angels if the tetra are in too small a group.

Other suitable fish are the rounder tetra like the Rosy Tetra, Roberts Tetra, Bleeding Heart Tetra. These three will add some colour. Lemon Tetra and Flame Tetra are two more. With any of these, a decent sized group of 8 or more.

Byron.

NewFishFiend

Will different types of tetras school together? I had planned to get 10 tetras for the new tank. As far as the barbs go, i like them okay but my male is mean amd i dont want just a 30 gallon of mean barbs lol.

Byron

Shoaling fish live in large groups, and there must be a group of that species. Numbers depend upon many factors, but always the more the better. This means fish of that species. The fish has evolved to require this, or it will be stressed and in poor health, and frequently turns more aggressive than normal.

Depending upon the species, 10 different species of tetra would mean something around 7-8 of each species, resulting in 70-80 fish not counting the angelfish. I would consider 3, 4 or 5 species, with 8+ of each.

Which brings me to the barbs. They must have a group of 8, or this will only get worse. They are naturally nippy to begin with, but such fish when denied what nature programmed into them often become even worse. It is your choice, but if you want Tiger Barb then you should have 9 of them in the 30g.

Byron.

NewFishFiend

Thank you all so much for the wonderful responses and information! Im not sure if one of my barbs is even going to make it through the night. She was looking pale and gasping when i left for work. Ugh, i could just beat that woman at petsmart that allowed this to happen. Poor fishies :/ i will not have a chance to get more barbs until atleast thursday. I hope they make it until then. It has gotten much worse since i removed the angels and tetras. I think the angels were keeping him in check lol.