Does barb size matter?! LOL

[bassboi]

Sorry, I just thought that was an entertaining question.

Anyway, I currently have a 30g tank at my girlfriends house that has 1 tiger barb, 1 gourami, 1 shrimp, snails, algae, and some suckermouth fish.

I also have a 10g tank at my house, which is currently where I live. It has an amazon sword and a small school of tiger barbs, 5. Just enough to keep them happy and not fussy, but the male (the bright colored one) chases the others some of the time.

Now on to my question...

The one tiger barb that's been in the 30g tank for some time now has grown to be rather large. I mean, so large that when I went there to get my daughter, he looked like a monster compared to the 5 I have.

He appears to be about a full 3 inches long and the biggest one I have in the school is about 1.25~1.5 inches.

If I were to add that one large one to the school of 5 others, would this have a harmful effect?

Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!:1:

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

How long have the 5 been in the 10gal? There is a chance they have been stunted. Also, it would be helpful to know how many of each fish is in the 30.

He'd definitely be at the top of the pecking order. He would definitely establish himself as being the head and in doing so may be a bit over zealous and do some damage to the much smaller ones, but I don't think it would be anything siginificant. IMO, you could introduce the smaller ones to the 30g tank providing it is not already overstocked and the others have not been stunted. Thoise 2 things will be important.

[bassboi]

Thanks for the reply!

To answer some of your questions, I have listed all what is in each tank.

There's just the tiger barb and gourami in the 30g, and the "fab 5" have been in the 10g for about a week now... I had gotten them from Walmart for free, the day walmart got their fish stock in.

Also, I'm going to move the 30g tank from my girlfriends' house to here, so that's why I was wondering if it would be safe to put the monster with the 5 smaller ones i have

[MandyL]

What type of gourami? If it's a dwarf gourami, personally what I would do is put the 5 tigers into the 30g with the large one, and move the gourami to the 10gal. The barbs do need more space, but I wouldn't put them all with the gourami as they could get nippy.

[bassboi]

its an opaline gourami... i just updated my signature with what i have.

thanks for the replies again, it's appreciated.

i'll take that with a grain of salt.