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Barbs and plants: how bad is it?

Wolf6

Wolf6

Member
Joined
18 Dec 2014
Messages
958
Location
Netherlands
I've been looking at various barb species for my tank, planted with a lot of blyxa and hairgrass and other soft plants, and have been reading how they can demolish soft plants in days. I've also read accounts where this wasnt the case. Who here has odessa/tiger/ruby or rosy barbs and can shed some light onto this? And to all those who dont, what alternatives do you see for highly active group fish? I dont like the shape of congo tetra or rainbows, and tetras are fun but not very active, what else is there? :) Preferably a bit bigger, the same tank will hold 25 embers so something larger to contrast that would be fun.
 
I think @Geoffrey Rea and @LondonDragon both had/have odessa barbs so might be able to give their experience. I have kept all the ones you listed and not had any problems that I noticed apart from with the rosy barbs which did eat some softer plants.
 
I have Odessa, Chequered and Cherry with my plants tank, the only issue is the Odessa barbs like to go and pick food from my carpet and pull up the hairgrass!

Also Chequered Barbs would not recommend for open top, out of the 3 species they are the only ones that jump out of the tank!
 
I've got Rosy Barbs, with Vallis, Hygrophylla difformis, H siamensis 53B, Cryptocoryne 'beckettii' and Hydrocotyle tripartita. No signs of nibbling.
I've had Cherry, Checker and Five-Banded Barbs in planted tanks with no problems.
My brother kept Tiger Barbs for many years with various plants includng Elodea, which is pretty soft and tempting for nibblers. He always had large shoals to reduce the aggression, that may have reduced any tendency to nibble too.
hth
 
I enjoyed Odessa barbs for about a year, and even had them spawning with a half dozen successful fry growing up. Then I removed the sword grass (bottom right) and they switched to spawning over the hairgrass and tearing it up.

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I have rosy barb, tiger barb and Denison barb. None of them bother plants, and even if they do occasionally, it wouldn’t make a dent if you have vigorously growing plant mass. I keep cichlid with plants with no issue and cichlid are 10x more powerful and destructive than small barbs. I will not keep rosy barbs again though as males fight and tore one another fins non stop. Tiger barb are far less aggressive than their reputation and Denison barb are as mellow as goldfish.
 
Having thought it over some more I think I will pass on the barbs for now. I love their look but with almost 30 embers and the 7 serpeas adding them now would be too much. Instead I will get some panda corys and add 5 more serpeas or something. Thanks all for the input, I will try them some day :)
 
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