tin foil barbs compatability

could anybody tell me what are compatable with these fish, i have two big ones in my tank.
i also have a red tail black shark, golden gourami, placostomos with black and albino widows.
my tank is 100-150lt

 

hallo, if im not mistaken you have a 3 foot tank, which will probably be too small for those fish. i might be wrong.

 

yeah that could be about the right size of my tank, the tin foil barbs aren't massive they about 30-35mm!
what fish are they compatable with?

 

Barbs are called barbs for a reason.. they are barbaric!

Increase the numbers to a minimum of 6... more if you can. They like to be in groups. The more there are, the less chance you have of them causing trouble with other fish.

 

i know @mydummyname has them with bala sharks but then you will have to get rid of your rainbow shark, black gohst knfe fish is another option, but keep in mind that these go up to 30cmms and more.. i think others will be able to give you better advice. i was going to go with these fish in my 700L tank

 

thanks for the advice guys, point taken. i got the barbs from a friend and would probably have to donate them or trade them in the future.

 

@adeekins, hi dude, there are a few things that you need to take note of with tinfoil barbs, firstly they are beautiful fish, and will quicikly steal your heart with there friendly and playful (read greedy ) nature.

they are schooling fish and need to be in groups as @Zoom has mentioned. 5 is the minimum, but really you should go with 7 minumum.

the best tankmates for these fish are bala sharks, silver dollars, clown loaches and some other fish.

you get 2 kinds of tinfoil barb, the standard tinfoil and the red tail tinfoil, the standard tinfoil has a red tail with black edging, the red tail tinfoil only has a plain red tail. the major difference in these2 fish are that the standard tinfoil barb grows to about 35cm, the red tail tinfoil barb will only grow to about 22cm, but its still a big fish, no matter how you look at it.

red tail tinfoils are called b.altus and the normal tinfoil is called b. schwanenfeldii.

these guys are supposed to be plant eaters only, but they will eat anything that you put into the tank.

the problem is not only in size, but at the phenomenal growth rate of these fish, within 4 months they will close to 15cm and probable jumping out of a 3ft (100L) tank. they should really only be kept in tanks that are 1,8 to 2m.

unless you intend to upgrade to a much bigger tank soon, i would not advise you keep these fish, also, if you were gonna get tankmates for them i.e. bala sharks, you would not be able to keep the redtail black shark as he would hound the bala sharks to death. red tail sharks should never be kept with any other kind of shark, including other red tail sharks.

unfortunately i disagree with @Zoom that barbs are barbaric no offence dude

but i'm rather biased in the above comment as i am somewhat of a barb nut,as i keep tiger barbs, tinfoil barbs etc

i hope this helps

cheers

 

thanks for the great advice as your comments seem knowledgable.
i have noticed their behaviour in the facts you have given.
i appreciate all the help given.
cheers and keep well
adeekins.

 

No problemo if you do like that type of schooling fish, i can suggest rosy barbs. They do have similar behavior to tinfoils, altho they are a lot less boisterous than tinfoils. They do Also eat plants, but They are not as bad as tinfoils so you can keep them with certain plants. You can Also get them in a beautiful long fin variety. But by far the best quality about them is that they only grow to a much more manageable 15cm. And they dont grow as quickly as tinfoils either.

 

@adeekins - Sounds like you need to get another "BIG" tank :bigsmile:. Nudge nudge...