It is absolutely certain that most people at least once in their life thought about acquiring an aquarium with fish. After all, an aquarium with colorful fish floating in it is not only very beautiful from the point of view of design, but also incredibly interesting from the point of view of acquiring new knowledge and skills. Beginning aquarists do not immediately acquire fish breeding skills, so they try to start fish that are unpretentious in leaving, for example, barbs.
Features of the nature of barbs
These fish are quite attractive in appearance. According to the scientific classification, they belong to the cyprinid family. Under natural conditions, these representatives of the aquatic fauna live in fresh water bodies and are quite large. Their homeland is Africa, India, China and Indonesia. Aquarium varieties of barbs differ in very small sizes, the average figure is in the range of 5-8 cm, and in the largest individuals - no more than 12 cm.
Barbuses are nimble and curious fish, swim in the aquarium rather quickly and like to “scout” corners and crevices hidden from human eyes. For their activity, they are often called watchdogs, since their behavior is somewhat reminiscent of the behavior of dogs, not fish. They are not only unpretentious regarding the purity of the water, but also not very capricious regarding the type of feed.
It is not difficult to keep these fish; the main thing is to take into account their active behavior. And since they are schooling fish, it is best for them to be surrounded by individuals of their own species. To suppress their sometimes excessively aggressive behavior, 7-8 fish in the aquarium are enough - so they will be less molesting the "neighbors", and more engaged in sorting out relationships between themselves. You should not keep more than 8 individuals in the aquarium, because they will begin to pressure the other inhabitants of the aquarium and with great tenacity will conquer places in space.
Their aggressiveness is directly dependent on belonging to one of the varieties. Before you get these nimble fish, it is worthwhile to understand in more detail the aquarium species.
- The most cocky and pugnacious are the fish belonging to the Sumatran variety. They are characterized by an average size of not more than 5-7 cm and a rather bright color. The body of the fish is literally all "streaked" with black wide vertical stripes, perfectly combined with the main golden background. There are individuals with four and five stripes.
- The fiery barbus differs from Sumatran in color, body structure, and behavior. Representatives of this species do not grow in an aquarium more than 8 cm, have a more peaceful disposition.
- Cherry barbs - the fish are calm and even a little shy, which is how they differ from their relatives.
- Black variety refers to the most popular fish and therefore almost every aquarist has it. The body shape of a typical representative has similar outlines with the Sumatran barbus, but the color is completely different. Although the stripes are present, they are not so pronounced as in Sumatran individuals. In addition, the degree of brightness of the strips depends on the conditions. The more green plants in the aquarium, the brighter they are.
- The barbus is linear It is characterized by a peace-loving character and bright colors. In typical representatives, the main tone is golden yellow. Individuals of this species can grow in length up to 8-10 cm. Males are smaller and brighter than females.
- Barbus clown (everett) - The fish is very active, mobile and jumping, but with a peace-loving character. He feels comfortable in a group of 6-7 individuals who like to stay in the lower layers of the aquarium.
- Barbus mutant is a rather rare and valuable fish of one of the forms of the Sumatran variety. It has an unusual and interesting character. It is very mobile and playful, generally peaceful. Their aggressive nature manifests itself in those cases when suddenly they are left alone - without a pack. In a pack, these individuals do not terrorize other representatives of the aquarium. Most active during the day.
Compatibility Factors
When populating the aquarium with fish of various species, factors of their compatibility should be considered. These factors primarily include the degree of aggressiveness and territoriality of individual varieties.
Barbuses, as already noted, are active and playful fish, in some cases even aggressive, so a spacious and preferably rectangular aquarium will be the best option for them.
The more free space, the lower the likelihood of barbus fights with other species outside the territory.
These fishes are big badasses, so very often other aquarium inhabitants living nearby hide from them. In order for them to have somewhere to hide in the aquarium from fidgeting barbs, it is necessary to purchase green plants and artificial shelters. The thicker the overgrown in the aquarium, the more whole will be other types of fish.
In addition to those mentioned above, other factors of different fish’s living standards in one aquarium are of no small importance. For example, for our "heroes" it is very important to live in a pack. To divert the attention of barbs from other species of fish, it is better to purchase not one, but two or even three varieties of these fidgets. So they will be engaged in each other and will pay less attention to calmer neighbors.
Besides, under no circumstances should you settle in the same aquarium with barbs of viviparous fish. For barbara predators, fry are a delicacy, so they will not calm down until they destroy everyone.
A factor such as the habitats of different species can help accommodate even those fish that, it would seem, absolutely cannot live together. And all this is possible only because fish who prefer to spend time in the bottom layers are unlikely to intersect with surface species.
AND, of course, one of the basic rules is to have enough food. Failure can lead to fights. Food should be varied and in sufficient quantity. It is best to feed nimble fish of the described species with bloodworms, tubule mumps, cyclops and daphnia.
What kind of fish do you get along with?
There is a table in which the most popular types of aquarium fish are present and their degree of compatibility is shown. The “+” sign means that the fish are compatible, the “-” sign means the absolute incompatibility of the species, and the “0” sign indicates that it can be combined, but with some reservations.
According to the table, our "watchdogs" get along well with swordsmen, labeos, iris, plecostomy, rassibi, pecilia, bots, gourami, zebrafish, corridors and scalars.
The best neighbors for them will be swordsmen who are not inferior to barbs in either activity or aggressiveness. Gourami and thorns are quite nimble, they can fight back, so they get along quite easily in the same aquarium with barbs.
Mollinesia and barbs of each other, as a rule, do not notice, which means that they may well exist together.
Sumatran barbus gets along well with zebrafish. The latter are not shy, not very moody and quite active. In addition, zebrafish with their bright transverse stripes are well combined with the color of Sumatran barbs.
Somiki is another species that gets along well with barbs. In the aquarium for catfish, the lower layers of water are favorite places, while nimble barbs prefer to swim higher. Antsistrus, as a representative of the chain catfish family, will feel great in the same aquarium with barbs. They are quite peaceful and prefer to hide under artificial shelters most of the time, rather than engage in fights with other inhabitants.
With whom is cohabitation possible, but not very desirable?
You can settle with some types of barbs, but nevertheless their neighborhood can hardly be called desirable, because you will have to observe some rules of accommodation, which is not always possible to do.
For barbs, not very good neighbors are: cichlids, discus, loach, guppy and shrimp.
For fairly large and aggressive cichlids, it is important that the territory on which they live belongs only to them, so restless barbs for them are not the best option for neighborhood.
With cichlids, barbs can be kept, but on condition that cichlids are young, and barbs are adults. But when the first grow up, they will have to be jailed, otherwise there will be no barbs left in the aquarium.
With guppies, compatibility is possible provided that both fish are planted in the aquarium at a young age. But at the same time, you need to remember that barbs can turn beautiful guppy fins into a kind of ragged rag, so their cohabitation is also not a good idea.
Ampouleurs and shrimps are rather phlegmatic inhabitants of the aquarium, so sharing a room with bullying barbs is extremely undesirable for them. There is a high probability that the tendrils of the ampullarium will be gnawed and the shrimp will simply disappear.
With whom is collaborative content contraindicated?
They do not get along at all in the same aquarium with barbs: veiltail, goldfish, neon and astronotus.
Veil tails have very beautiful and bright fins that will undoubtedly attract the attention of the ubiquitous barbs. Calm veil-tails are unlikely to dodge them, so the fins will be bitten pretty quickly. In addition, the temperature regime for veil tails is somewhat different - they prefer cooler water than barbs.
Neons belong to the gentle, sensitive and poorly tolerating stressful situations for fish, so cocky barbs for them are not at all suitable as neighbors.
With astronotuses barbs can not be planted for exactly the opposite reason.
Astronotuses are predators, and they are quite impressive in size.
Small barbs cannot be defeated, and it will not work to hide, since astronotuses will find them everywhere. Most likely, after a very short period of time from the flock of our fidgets there will be no trace.
Details about the care and maintenance of barberries can be found in the video.
