Yes he is a barb and he has been living alone in a ten gallon planted tank for about a year because he is very aggressive toward my other fish. My water tested okay with the nitrates being a little high about 10 ppm. I do about 25% water changes every week. I moved him into a three gallon tank when I noticed the white patch so I could treat him without harming my plants. He seems fine swimming around and he's still eating I feed him TetraMin granules which he seems to like. Oh yeah and both tanks have filters but they are just the filters that came with the tanks. Mahalo, I hope this helps you help me.