Trying odessa barbs again

[mikehurley]

Once I get my bluegreen algae under control and I've built my cherry barb population back up, I'm thinking of trying odessa barbs again. A few years ago I had added to my odessa barbs and it included a male that was probably 50-100% bigger than my other odessas. He killed all my new odessas, all of my existing odessas, and some of my cherry barbs I had at the time. 

I really like how odessa barbs look. Before I got that batch they had behaved very well in my tank. I'd really like to try them again but not have a murder spree happen again.

Any ideas as to what was the likely cause of my problems? I'm thinking my mistake was adding an odessa that was so much bigger than the others and my other fish. That if that new group were all the same size that the problem wouldn't have happened. I don't remember exactly, but the new group was 3-5 fish and I was probably replacing since I had them a while. The existing group was probably 4-6 fish. The cherry barbs were about 6-10 in number.

It's a 38 gallon Aqueon tank. I don't remember if it was fake or real plants at that point. If fake, I had a lot of cover available. If early in my real plant journey, probably kind of sparse.

[Wesley]

You should have a look at the Odessa barbs from Greg Sage at SelectAquatics. He has a line where the colors are superior over any other line of Odessa barb I have seen, very dark blacks and really intense red streak. He is even working on getting some yellowing into the fins. I dont really have an answer for your question, but anything about Odessa barbs, he should be able to answer.

[tolstoy21]

I acquired Odessas from Greg a few months back. Very healthy fish. He's great to order from. Super responsive. Just all around positive experience. Very open to fielding general questions about fish species he keeps and has expertise in, from my experience.

However, and this isn't a complaint, just an observation/note -- his Odessas are young and unsexed. So they have a lot of growing out to do before they fully color up. So if you're someone who is looking to acquire the immediate satisfaction of the full coloration of the mature males, there are no guarantees to sex of the fish you receive. And you'll have to be patient and grow them out.

Mine are just starting to color-up now and I'm hopeful they'll be as amazing as they appear to be in his videos and photos. I'm going to attempt to breed them once they mature a bit.

All that being said, can't recommend buying through Greg enough.

Edited October 21, 2020 by tolstoy21