Who can live with these mean gold barbs?

[janejetson]

We put together a 10 gal tank about 4 months ago and right now the only fish in it are 6 gold barbs. They school/shoal together and follow the humans around the room which is really cool to watch but they have bullied everyone else literally to death, so that they are the only ones in the tank except for one little Chinese algae eater.

We are upgrading to a 20 gal tank now. I know that if we make the gold barb school bigger they will be less aggressive, so we could add 4 more of them I guess. What else can stand to be around fish like this? The information I have seen on the internet about these fish being more peaceful than tiger barbs is not true in this case, these guys are bullies.

We had about 3 or 4 zebra danios that wouldn't leave the algae eater alone (very aggressive also) and they lost against the gold barbs. Now the algae eater will at least come out of hiding. We used to have a ghost shrimp. They didn't want him either I guess.

Am I destined for a tank full of gold barbs and nothing but?

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Bigger tanks and bigger schools are very helpful when curbing aggression. It sounds like you have a sort of semi-aggressive tank going on there so I believe you should try something on the bottom where gold barbs don't swim. You should also try something for the top, or maybe keep with other FAST species like danios, or some of the larger rasboras. However I don't think any of this will be fitting in a twenty gallon tank so I'm not sure.

I highly reccomend getting rid of that chinese algae eater. It may be cute and little now but soon it will be even worse than your gold barbs, it will grow five-six inches long and start sucking on your fish for their tasty slime coats.

 

[Fishkeeper26]

One of problems is a 10 gallon tank isn't a lot of space for active fish. So when you add tankmates their aggression comes out and they bully other fish.

Neither the barbs, danios, or Chinese algae eater belong in a 10 gallon tank.

The barbs and danios are way too active.

And the Chinese algae eater gets to big.

 

[alLexX]

upgrade to a 55 and you can get a rainbow shark,and the others are right,the CAE wont work. it would probably be OK with the barbs in a big enough tank,but yours si way to small

 

[zparticle]

You can find a lot of info on these here. They are supposed to be docile, do you have places for them or other fish to hide in your tank? I know when I didn't have enough decorations/plants some of my fish became aggressive and that went away when I put more in the tank.

 

[janejetson]

OK, the aggression is why we are moving to a 20 gal. I have the tank, just need the gravel. And I do know about keeping the water, filter, etc to maintain good bacteria, etc. We'd do bigger if we thought we could handle it. We'd get rid of the fish and have peaceful fish if we knew how to "get rid" of them. I see that mentioned a lot on these forums but don't know what people do with them, trade with friends? Give back to the fish stores?

I didn't realize the Chinese would grow that large. We actually thought we had selected one that would stay small.

Given that we are stuck with these fish ... and a 20 gal now... have some live plants in there too I didn't mention because didn't think it was necessary in this topic but they do provide refuge... has it come down to population size?

 

[Fishkeeper26]

You can take your fish back to the store

 

[janejetson]

Thanks for the link on the gold barbs, zparticle. That was very informative. I don't ever see these guys as docile, though the active part definitely fits.

Fishkeeper26 I don't believe I have the option to return them to the store because we bought them at the big box pet store in town. The policy read that they only take fish back if they are sick/dead.

I cannot imagine how far away the nearest locally owned pet store/fish store would be, probably an hour away or more. Sad but true. I would definitely be buying fish there if I could.

How large a school of barbs would fit in a 20 gal? I understand everyone wants that CAE out of the tank, I'll have to see if I can find a home for it. Could we mix some other barbs in with the gold? Tigers? Since we're already dealing with an aggressive tank?

The zebra danios actually did school/shoal with the barbs... it was neat. Till they all got booted out of the club. I don't want more zebras, just sayin'.