Gill Passman wrote:

Apart from the male chewing the female I've not got much experience.......

She seems to be holding her own even though describing her as "scraggy"
wouldn't be an understatement. All the girls seem to be sticking together
with the male just trying to come and join them rather than chew them for
the moment.

Interestingly enough, when I went to get the two girls I was told that they
usually only sell them in male/female pairs. So they had to get the nod from
the Manager to sell me the pair of girls.

Males have more color, so if a full tank of rosy barbs comes in, many
stores sell pairs to get rid of the females. Cherry barbs are often
sold the same way. It's usually easy to convince a store to sell you 2
females instead of the male/female pair.

One of the new girls has the most amazing fins....almost like a fantail
goldfish. Hope she hangs on to them.

Longfin rosy barbs are cool fish. I think she'll be OK with 4 in the tank.

With respect to the tank I think I will be spending some time sitting down
with my son deciding on the best combination/mixes for his tanks. He has the
15gall and a 30gall. The 30gall is nowhere near stocked so maybe we can do
some swapping around so that the Barbs have more space. The only thing with
that is the Gouramis look so happy in the 30gall and I understand it isn't a
good idea to mix them with the Barbs.

The barbs will appreciate the space even if they don't grow as large as
many of the 'net references say. They're active swimmers. I once had a
planted community tank with rosy, cherry, and gold barbs as part of the
community. The barbs added lots of color and activity to the tank.

--
__ Elaine T __
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