YesimTHATjeremy

i am a slightly experenced tank owner and fish lover. and i recently converted a salt tank to a fresh water river bed and well i stumbled on an amazing comunity of fish iv only lost 2 of these fish and lemi say on that note that i personaly hate any and all mollys!!!! they die like that and everyone wants to bite them. so yeah if u have a comunity tank keep clear of those cute little mollys. but any way i spent a total of $70 on these 12 fish and i have never been happyer with a tank of this size (45gal) i love danios they are amazing they are not to bad to look at silver little stream lined fish with endless energy always moving always playfull(buy in odd numbers and never just one )Iv got 3 of these guys. i also got 3 striped tiger barbs and i have added 2 more today (they are larger then the first 3) to keep the other fish from harasing them to much but thats what they do u want several barbs b/c they disperse the agretion in the tank and make it more comunity friendly. i purchased 2 garamis of average size one ople and one golden and omg they are amazing buy these fish they go with everything and are very social and wont be attaced by other simi agresive fish. and also im gona throw a good word in for the black tip or bala sharks they are just fun... big fast and shiny . and no they are not agressive b/c they are sharks... and last but not least my sister gave me her small black guppi and u know iv decided that the black ones are mean enugh to go with simi/fully agresive fish so if ur gona do .that make sure that it is as big as ur smalist fish. well anyway thats just a sugestion for all of u instant gratofacation guys out there these fish are almost taking care of themselves. well god bless good night and good luck. jeremy out

Tommy Gun

Hey Jeremy! Welcome to the forum! I am glad that you have found the fish which make you the happiest...I can admit that I have yet to find the 'perfect' combination of fish for one tank, so I have to have a few tanks to compensate! Although, I do have to say...

...while I can see why this might make sense to you, it is really more of an opinion and to be honest, I am suprised that no one has disagreed with you on this yet. Given the right conditions and chosing from the right source, mollies can be a great community fish. Heck, many people I know have species tanks full of mollies and even I bred them for a short time about a year ago.

True...in fact, many fish are much much much better off in groups rather than singularly, such as many of the more commonly found community fish such as tetras and barbs. Just be aware that tiger barbs can be relatively aggressive for a community fish and are probably the most apt to take a bite out of your other fish, even if there are no mollies. Even...

...Bala sharks should be kept in groups of three or more and you are VERY right, they are big, real big, way too big for a 45 gallon tank:


Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to be overly critical of what you have to say here...just wanted to make sure some very good fish don't wind up with a bad reputation, nor would it be good if some fish which are poorly suited for most of our aquariums to get too much praise, if you know what I mean. Again, I am glad that you have found what makes you the happiest!

P-Daddy

A little off topic, but Tommy mentioned Tiger Barbs as being an aggressive fish, which is totally accurate yet many hobbyists experience much less aggression when kept in larger groups. From my experience much of the Barb family shares this characteristic.

Lately I have begun to warn people who ask me against cherry barbs, mine were great when juvenile, but once they hit maturity they
become little terrors. I tried to follow the formula I used for Tiger Barbs in the past and increased their number, but because they aren't a schooling fish and they often bicker amongst themselves it actually aggravated the situation.

Don't get me wrong, I think their great fish, especially for a semi-aggressive community, but they have successfully harassed a school of neons to death, and possibly an Ottocinclus. Two of the offenders are now even brave enough to chase rainbows and my keyhole cichlid. I have tried just about everything short of returning them to the store, which will be my last resort as I've had these guys since they were small and they sure are healthy specimens.

I've kept a group of 5 denison's before which were equally troublesome to me.

Tommy Gun

Great points P-Daddy! I agree with you that the more tiger barbs, as well as certain other fish (although I dont have any experience with cherry barbs...yet), that are kept together, the less likely they are to cause a lot of problems. Tigers can be tricky, and sometimes it seems as if their adult size is surprising to some (a very round 3 inches, which differs from their juvenile body shape). I have even kept them as dither fish with some of the more aggressive mbuna like M. Auratus. I do have to say that I really really really want to get ahold of some denison barbs though...you are the first person I have heard say anything negative about them to be honest, but then again, you and my brother are the only people I have 'talked' with and have kept them.

One more little tidbit about that picture...if you look behind that big bala shark, that is a giant gourami and in front of it is the tail of an approx. 14" tinfoil barb!

P-Daddy

I know you've mentioned it before, but what aquarium was that again Tommy?

YesimTHATjeremy

thanks for the touch up there yall and i do agree i am simply sharing what has worked for me( so far ) so yeah im glad u could clear it up and my mollie statements were strictly my opinion. so yeah thanks and wondering on adult bala sharks.... what kind of aggretion can i expect>?
so yeah thanks.

Tommy Gun

I took that photo at the shedd aquarium in chicago. In fact, it almost seemed that the 'theme' of this tank was to stock it with the fish that are commonly available to hobbyists, but grow much larger than we might realize at the time. For example, the bala, tinfoil barb, and gourami, but there was also a large group of other fish like clown loaches and a few Redfin Prochilodus.

Please don't get me wrong, I think most of us realized that this was your intention and the only reason I brought up the things I did was only to make sure that others who read your post do not get the wrong impression.

IME, and yea, some of my very first fish were bala sharks (but I know better now), they are pretty 'tame' even though they are commonly referred to as being 'semi-aggressive'. However, I never kept any balas long enough to observe their disposition as adults. However, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that one or more of your balas becomes overly aggressive, and likewise, overly docile...which could be said of any fish species really. I do think that if your tank becomes too 'cramped' for all of the fish you have, aggression problems are more likely to occur...just like us humans who value our 'personal space', I think fish also value the same to varying degrees depending on the species.