Your Opinion On Barbs?

I'm considering getting some barbs for my fish tank. I have a 60x40x30cm tank with some tetras and cory cats in already. It's densely planted and has a soft, soil-based substrate.

What in your opinions are the best barbs to keep? Also, are they energetic and playful, or sedentary little critters?

Cheers guys 

I think the two species ColinB mentions are probably the best. But you need 6 or so as even Cherry barbs are known to nip other fish if kept in small numbers. I bought 6 Ruby barbs, expecting them to be quiet. Although the males are very attractive, they are really argumentative among themselves and occasionally try to take it out on other fish. Most other barbs would be too big for your tank as they all need to be kept in a group.

Sue, I have a new fish tank in the works and will be built in about 3 months time. The tetras are still young yet, about 4-4.5cm, so are still good in the tank. I will be upgrading to a 140-170cm tank, which will house a lot of tetras and some barbs. The current tank will likely be used to house some guppies, the corys and maybe some cherry barbs. If the large tank doesn't come to fruition, I may have to sell my beloved Congos back to the fish shop and get some other fish - though the owner has mentioned that he would be interested in me growing congo tetras from 2cm fry to small sub-adults (4cm) for him in return for store credit to buy food etc.

Unfortunately, the heat is definitely a problem, and I have had to specifically select fish from relatively still waters in hot climes (Venezuelan river pools and the Congo drainage points for the tetras), to ensure that when the heat does climb up while I am out of the house, the fish are ok. I had some zebra danios early on that taught me a hard lesson in that regard . In future planning of fish, in regards to temperature levels, my two big options that I know of currently are Discus and Angelfish, however, my tank is too small for both, and discus are way to fragile for my liking. Other than those, I have considered Australian Rainbowfish (Melanotaeniidae) in the past, as they are Australian natives and often are found in Northen Territory billabongs, where the temperatures can reach 35-38C in a dry summer.

EDIT: Upon a proof reading, it sounds like I'm being passive-aggressive, it's definitely not intended to be that way. Sorry.

Nice one - I look forward to watching your progress with it. Any plans?

You have plenty options for a tank that size. Look forward to hearing what you finally decide to do.





It's always tricky when people first join the forum - we don't know about future plans, nor how much a new person knows about fish. I tend to err on the side of caution and assume newbies know nothing, then apologise if they know a lot. So apologies for telling you about the congo tetras when you knew already 

Ive always enjoyed Barbs, but in groups of 6 or more.  The Odessa Barb is one of my favorites.

I have a soft spot for the Green Tiger Barb:

Yeah, but I think Milton's fickle! 

Milton goes with the flow   

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