need some advice

I have a 90G planted tank, its current inhabitants are an adult M/F pair of raindow darters, 2 juvie rainbow darters (males I think) 4 blue spotted sunfish 1 hornyhead chub..my question is can I add another adult pair of rainbows to this tank or will that cause problems between the males? I have another pair in a 10G but will be moving into a new house soon and was thinking of consolidating tanks, I have 7 tanks going now and want to go down to no more than 5.. even thought the 2 I am going to take out of the picture are 10G's it is still space that I may not have once the house is fully furnished.

Size wise you know its ok to do it. I think to find out if your particular fish are going to have problems you might have to try it....and watch carefully. With heavy planting it might work out pretty well....

I have a 90G planted tank, its current inhabitants are an adult M/F pair of raindow darters, 2 juvie rainbow darters (males I think) 4 blue spotted sunfish 1 hornyhead chub..my question is can I add another adult pair of rainbows to this tank or will that cause problems between the males? I have another pair in a 10G but will be moving into a new house soon and was thinking of consolidating tanks, I have 7 tanks going now and want to go down to no more than 5.. even thought the 2 I am going to take out of the picture are 10G's it is still space that I may not have once the house is fully furnished.

The addition would be fine I've kept them at much higher numbers in much smaller quarters. While there will be many squabbles and displaying they do little if any real damage. The bigger problem is those two poor females which will be harassed by numerous suitors. I've found they do much better with two to three females per male. Otherwise the females will slowly decline and die off much sooner then the males. In a 90 gallon though this will likely be minimized. Plus plenty of rocks and hiding places helps.

The addition would be fine I've kept them at much higher numbers in much smaller quarters. While there will be many squabbles and displaying they do little if any real damage. The bigger problem is those two poor females which will be harassed by numerous suitors. I've found they do much better with two to three females per male. Otherwise the females will slowly decline and die off much sooner then the males. In a 90 gallon though this will likely be minimized. Plus plenty of rocks and hiding places helps.

Thanks.. I havent seen any problems with the males bothering the female as of yet, I am assuming that unless she becomes gravid they wont bother her but I will watch for that. The tank is heavily planted and plenty of hiding areas.. the males typically perch on the plants closer to the top of the tank and the female usually stays within a small area around the large driftwood. They occasionally all hang out together but more often the males are covering the entire tank going from plant to plant.

Brian,

You shouldn't have any problem. Darters are kind-of like cichlids in that you can pack 'em in. I doubt that you will see much if any aggression, even if the females get gravid.

Brian