I wanted something a little different so I decided to have a tank focused on barbs. Does anyone have any barb suggestions? There's more than I thought! I don't know which ones to choose or how many I can choose, presuming that I need to have at least 5 to a school?

What do you think my tank theme should be? Planted? I was thinking sparingly planted because barbs probably need a lot of swimming space. They look like they're fast swimming fish. I think barbs are from South America so I was thinking on doing that...like driftwood in the center with moss or fern attached and then some plants around the edges of the tank?

If I have fish in the bottom section of the tank which do you think would be a good match?

I like this idea, I prefer the creative approaches instead of just randomly choosing different fish.

I think if it was my tank I would choose some of the more unusual barb species that don't get quite as much recognition as tiger barbs or rosy barbs. Just to make it a bit more 'special'. And I'd choose some more unusual species of cories, too.