9 replies to this topic

[MathMan]

Hi All,
I want to establish a colony of tiger/moss/cherry/ruby barbs in my tank preferrably with large schools of all 4. Maybe even some tinfoil barbs if space allows. The tank is 6'x1.5'x1' heavily planted, so i would like to know how many of each people would recommend. Maybe some compattable catfish?
I was think along the lines of 6-10 of each so 40ish in total with maybe 5 or 6 tinfoils?
Possibly a pair of Kribs? I wont be overstocking hopefully

If anyone has any tips on keeping/breeding barbs this would be much appreciated as well as information on compatable species

Cheers
Alex

[Brett4Perth]

Hello again Alex,

Not kept a lot of barbs, largely been put off by their reputation as plant destructive aggressive fish. I suspect this is largely undeserved, certainly the Cherry Barbs I kept were model citizens in my 4ft tank but were quite aggressive in a much smaller tank. I suspect that most of the aggression relates to inadequate housing. As you rightly point out the use of a school of the same species is desirable as it disperses there aggression more evenly over a number of individuals and "shares the wear".

Recently been reading about Rosy barbs and their algea eating habits (mainly thread , which I am plagued with at the moment), so perhaps I will be joining you with a tank of barbs.

Cheers
Brett

[MathMan]

Well i finally got my fish ended up with:
8 Moss Barbs
11 Tiger Barbs
7 Cherry Barbs (1 died on the way home)
6 SAE's
4 Bronze Cories
I love the barbs! they are schooling beautifully! I am rather impressed with the cherry barbs, their colour is very intense! unlike what I have seen in pictures of them. I am stil on the hunt for some Barbus nigrofasciatus (Ruby barb) so if anyone has seen any, please tell me
I have yet to see the SAE's start working, the barbs seem to be getting into the string algae which is good. The guppies I have in the tank still have their fins intact. ( I don't expect this to last but we shall see how long it will )
BTW I have a chinese algae eater in the tank and he is awfullly hard to catch, anyone know of any tips on how to catch him? I want him outta there before he does any damage!
Cheers
Alex

[Brett4Perth]

Ha Ha , had a SAE in my planted 4ft tank that took a month to catch. These guys are like lightning. In the end i think he felt sorry for me and swam into the net!!!

I love the Cherry barbs too, they are my favourites and always well behaved in my tanks.

Brett

[anchar]

I agree with Brett...the cherry barbs are lovely and play by the rules. I have recently aquired some buffalo barbs which I think are relatively new. They are really nice looking and appear to be compatible with plants and other fish.

merjo

[dannyboyau]

got some juvenile ruby barbs from vebas last week

[ibm450]

anyone know where to get black ruby barbs from? are there any local breeders for these, prefer adults males as they look really good

 

 

P.S. i live in Kwinana or next door to rockingham 

Edited by ibm450, 10 January 2014 - 10:16 PM.

[BristledOne]

Try CityBarn in Malaga, I was in there less than a week ago and they had a tank of assorted barbs. Also have a look at premierpet's website as most/all of the PCS sponsors can order fish from there. Goodluck

[Morley Aquariums]

We got black rubys today, approx 3cm

Update, all gone, more in a week or 2.

[sydad]

Forget about adding tinfoils to your heavily planted aquarium; unless of course, you are keen to convert it to an unplanted aquarium. (Ooops, didn't note the date of the original posts).

 

Syd.

Edited by sydad, 12 January 2014 - 12:28 PM.