Rosy Barbs: My experience keeping them

[PotatoFish]

In case anyone has been considering Rosy Barbs, I just wanted to share some of my anecdotal experience in keeping them so that maybe others will have a few things to consider before trying them out.

 

Looks
First off, they are really pretty fish, especially the long-fin (hyphenated?) variety. The males color up and exhibit some amazing colors, and even the females are a wonderful, bright yellow. The single male I kept in my goldfish tank for a couple years was a wonderful bright orange red. He became even more striking when I started feeding the tank krill flakes.

 

Behavior
They will DEFINITELY pick on, nibble at, and help keep black beard algae in check. In my case, it was utter extermination with the single male I had in my tank. I later added a group of females and another male, and they utterly stripped that tank clean of any and all traces of BBA and string algae (which I suspect came from my Marimo moss ball).

 

They are supposed to be relatively peaceful fish, but I think that is very much on a fish-by-fish basis. The single male I had for a LONG time with my goldfish never once picked at or nipped her long, flowy fins. The new group of females and male were a rabid bunch of fin nippers. As such, I had to re-home them and kept my super docile male, who at this time was about 3.5" from nose to peduncle (longer if you count the long, flowy fins he had).

 

This male, unfortunately, died when I was moving. I'm not sure how or why. I had a battery-operated air pump and air stone in a good-sized cooler with clean water. I think it may have been the stress; he stayed with us a little while after the tank got set up (same day as the move), but he never seemed to recover. I really liked that fish.

 

I didn't get a replacement rosy barb for a while, and BBA came creeping back and invaded in force. I caved and bought a new male, long-fin rosy barb. When he was introduced to the tank, that BBA went from looking fluffy to looking mowed down seemingly overnight. The new tank savior also suddenly tore into the goldfish after living peacefully together for more almost a month. It was just as fast and brutal as the BBA, only instead of "seemingly overnight" it all happened in one "literal night."

 

Conclusion
These are excellent fish, and they look absolutely phenomenal. They didn't seem to give any of the fast-swimming fish any trouble, nor did they give the dojo loach any trouble, and he just sat at the bottom hiding under plants a lot of the time. But it just seems like a real coin toss whether you will get one with a violent tank boss personality or one that is a zen master and hair algae mowing machine. Be careful and watch them closely if you have any fish you may have concerns about. I wish you the best of luck in keeping them if you choose to have them in a community tank.

 

Final note:
The goldfish tank I kept mine in was a cold water tank and had no heater. My wife keeps the house about the same temperature year-round, so it was just "room heating/cooling."

Edited July 10, 2022 by PotatoFish

[Flumpweesel]

I really enjoy mine, I have two that are incredibly active and don't seem to even notice other fish in the tank.

I am contemplating getting a few more to see if they chill out in higher numbers but haven't spotted any recently.

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/9/2022 at 11:28 AM, Flumpweesel said:

I am contemplating getting a few more to see if they chill out in higher numbers but haven't spotted any recently.

We were talking about it in a tiger barb thread, and the recommendation there was to have 2+ kinds of barbs to give them something to focus on besides their own kind or to have a tank boss.  In my case, in the bigger tank it was a red-tailed black shard that ran the show and the barbs spent a lot of time just avoiding her in lieu of fighting each other.  It won't always work, but it's something to consider.

[Patrick_G]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I’ve been contemplating a Barb tank (there’s never enough tanks!) recently and Rosy barbs would certainly be included along with Odessa and Mascara barbs. 

[PotatoFish]

On 7/10/2022 at 3:28 AM, Flumpweesel said:

I really enjoy mine, I have two that are incredibly active and don't seem to even notice other fish in the tank.

I am contemplating getting a few more to see if they chill out in higher numbers but haven't spotted any recently.

I think Cory had mentioned in a video once that getting a group of them would help to disperse the aggression. I rehomed the group I had before I could really watch them interact with each other much.

I would like to try keeping them in a group again sometime in the future. Keep me posted on how it works out! 

On 7/10/2022 at 3:48 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

We were talking about it in a tiger barb thread, and the recommendation there was to have 2+ kinds of barbs to give them something to focus on besides their own kind or to have a tank boss.  In my case, in the bigger tank it was a red-tailed black shard that ran the show and the barbs spent a lot of time just avoiding her in lieu of fighting each other.  It won't always work, but it's something to consider.

I can see a tank boss working out quite nicely, especially if it's an actively swimming one. I think that's a pretty good idea to have a "predatoryesque" fish keeping them on their fintips.

If the tank boss chills out, I can see the other fishies going, "No one's looking...no one's looking...PLAY TIME!"

[PotatoFish]

On 7/10/2022 at 4:04 AM, Patrick_G said:

Thanks for sharing your experience! I’ve been contemplating a Barb tank (there’s never enough tanks!) recently and Rosy barbs would certainly be included along with Odessa and Mascara barbs. 

I still recall an amazing barb tank (tigers and rosy barbs...maybe cherry, with a dinosaur of a bristlenose pleco) I saw as a university student in a Japanese restaurant. It was about 75gal and heavily planted. Someone there REALLY loved fish and knew their stuff.

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/9/2022 at 7:37 PM, PotatoFish said:

I still recall an amazing barb tank (tigers and rosy barbs...maybe cherry, with a dinosaur of a bristlenose pleco) I saw as a university student in a Japanese restaurant. It was about 75gal and heavily planted. Someone there REALLY loved fish and knew their stuff.

Whenever the tank is able to be setup again, I think my next tank is going to have Melon barbs, a horde of green tiger barbs, and some odessa barbs from Greg Sage.

I'll be excited for it!  What a fun tank to feed.