Re-Stocking After Hurricane Sandy

[icefreeze57]

Hey all, know I havn't been around for awhile. Busy with school and stuff, thought I should start bugging you guys again.

So anyway. I did lose a fish during Hurricane Sandy. My 40G tank back at home now has a small school of Tiger Barbs (I think 5 or 6, where I use to be higher in the summer.) And then I have one pleco but he's not in the school and is always left alone.

Anyway, now I have to decide. I do love Tiger Barbs but I also kind of struggle keeping the school. At one point the school was at 10 (maybe even higher, I can't remember) and now the school is half the size.

I know there should be more TBs in the tank (when I go back home around Thanksgiving I'll get new fish). But I guess I need to decide weather or not to add TBs or give up on the school and just let them be.

Also, I would consider adding another group with them, but would also be happy with just the TBs cause my brother takes care of the tank and I don't want to add anything else where he might be overwhelmed. And more importantly I'm trying to start up my apartment's tank down here at school and my mom is going to kill me if I go crazy again with these fish lol.

Let me get your quick thoughts, I am assuming everyone is going to tell me to get at least 2 and probably more like 4/5 more Tigers. But I guess any advice would be helpful with these guys.

-ice

[dizzydezzy]

Tiger barbs are aggressive little buggers, especially when in smaller groups. I am not sure it's really an option for you to get a group of different fish to go with them, unless you can think of other semi-aggressive fast swimmers of similar size - the tigers are likely to try and rip any new additions to shreds.
I would just up the tiger numbers - you can always get some of the different coloured tiger babs, like the gold ones or the green ones for variety (they are all the same species and shool together just fine). Make sure you add the new tigers in a decent size group, and you might want to rearrange the decor in the tank before you add them (so the resident tiger barbs don't get too nippy/fighty with the newcomers).

[icefreeze57]

Yeah, I'm probably going to end up just upping the school, I'm thinking the number 8 for right now and see how it goes.

I do have a convict cichlid that I always consider adding to this tank but I just don't know. I kind of feel like it would work, and also feel like it wouldn't lol