# cherry barb (Puntius titteya) aggression



## fireman (Apr 28, 2006)

i bought a pair of cherry barbs 1 male and 1 female. by the end of the first day at night the male started getting aggressive with the female. he chases her constantly into hiding. if he sees her roaming around she gets chased. this has been going on for about 4 days now. female doesnt get much to eat either because when she goes to top for food the male chases her away. i was thinking about getting 1 more male and 3 females. so maybe the males will chase each other instead and also there will be more females so theyll feel more comfortable. any suggestions on what to do.?


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## Astral (Sep 24, 2004)

I have 1 male and 3 females and all is good cuz the male's attention is divided. Getting another male would be cool because they will mock fight with each other but I think then you will need more females. (but I'm not an expert on these guys so I'll someone else advise on the male female ratio if you have 2 males)

They are very nice, peaceful and hardy fish to keep


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## fireman (Apr 28, 2006)

i know someone that used to have a male and female with other community fish and the male chased all of them for about a week then calmed down. i hope it does that with mine.


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## mpe1329 (Sep 1, 2007)

I recommend you get a dozen of them to disperse the aggression. They're great fish. I haven't kept them in many years but when I did, they spawned and I didn't notice it until I saw the fry, about a half dozen of which made it to adulthood without my removing them from a heavily planted tank.


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## JustOneMore21 (Mar 19, 2007)

I suggest keeping them in ratios of atleast 1 male to 2 females.....having more females than that would be even better.  I keep 1m/2f and the male isn't very aggressive.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I got rid of my female, and have 5 males that all play nicely in my 30g tank.
when it comes to issues like this, it often boils down to the tank and fish.
the only common observation is the bigger the school, the less aggression.


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## fireman (Apr 28, 2006)

last night i noticed that for about a good hour my male followed the female without nipping but just going around her alot and they would go through the javamoss alot and he would rub on her a little bit and when he goes away the female followed him and the did they same thing over and over. but about an hour after they did that female was being chased again into hiding. would that be breeding behavior?


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Yes, that probably is spawning behavior, but that's not to say that even though they are spawning they won't hurt each other. I would definitely get more as suggested and that should help. I have about 8 of them in a 29 gallon and they all get along peacefully. It is correct that the ratio should be at least one male to 2 or more females. Cherries are much less aggressive than many other barbs, but if given the opportunity, they will all misbehave...


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

The male wants to spawn with the female. That's why he is chasing her. As was noted earlier, several females will dilute the male's efforts and probably tire him out enough that he will no longer be a problem.

There is a lot of evidence that boys and girls do better in single gender schools. The behavior of the barbs illustrates why.  

Bill


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