Christopher Stoute - 2011-08-29 I have had a hard time with Tinfoil Barb in the past couple of months. Every time I clean my tank they will die. I lost two the first time thought it was something that i had done so I did some research on cleaning the thank with the type of filter that I have. Just yesterday I clean the thank did not use any chemicals at all and lost my last three. Any comments on what happening or did anyone have this happen to them and what can I do. Thanks Chris
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james - 2011-10-19 What I do with mine is I let the water evaperate on its own and when its 20 percent gone I fill it up with treated water and clean out the filter every time it needs to be cleaned. They are hardy but mine tend to stress during this time so don't put them under a lot of stress hope you have some better succes if you deside to get more sorry for your losses though
fish man - 2012-01-26 It's the water it has to be almost the same temp as well as chlorine free. Get a bucket put a drop of prime everytime you fill it up. They are being stressed so put something in the way to catch the water so you wont have a big splash
Rahul - 2016-06-07 Change only 20-25% of your tank water every week. And put anti chlorine . you fishes should do fine.
Laur - 2009-01-04 I bought my first barb fish last night. I bought one tinfoil barb. He seems to stick to the bottom of the aquarium and isn't as social as my other two (green tiger barb and tiger barb) fish. Should I be worried about him? I've been really protective over him since I noticed.
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Katie - 2010-03-05 One, he is probably stressed. Two, he won't school with the other barbs as he will become a much larger barb at 14 inches! You should really get at least one other tiger barb and two more tinfoils. However, you will need a minimum of a 48 gallon tank for this amount of fish.
Rahul - 2016-06-07 Tin foil barbs like to be in school and you should bring more 3-4 tin foil to make him happy. But again it will require a really big tank so a atleast 2-3 should make him active and and give him a secure feeling.
Maryna - 2015-11-06 I have 4 tin foil barbs that are about 12 inches long. Bought them 14 yrs ago. They were about 2-3 inches when first purchased. I recently lost their cichlid companion of 8yrs. They are doing well in a 125 gal tank. But I perform water changes every week to keep the tank clean. I also have a filter for a 230 gal tank that provides good oxygen and a significant amount of current. I guess they can live longer than 10 yrs if well taken care of.
Joy Jones - 2015-10-30 Hi - I have three Tun Foil Barbs and bought them when they were very small - the guy did not warm me that they are going to grow so large! They seem happy but I think they need more space, so I have a 4000 lit fish pond with koi fish in there, and I was wondering if I could transfer them to the pond? They will have much more room to swim and my koi's are all quite large already, so I don't think they would view them as food - any thoughts or advice on this? Otherwise I think I am going to have to try and find another hime for them which would be sad, but if thats the case then so be it, the fish need more space at the end of the day -thanks!
Anonymous - 2014-10-27 I have 8 tiger berbs,3 green barbs, 9 cherry barbs & 3 plecos i would like to add tinfoil barb to the group, can they cope??
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Clarice Brough - 2014-10-27 The Tinfoil Barb is a shy fish. You didn't say what size tank you have, but these guys need to be kept in a group and in a very large tank... 225 is suggested for a school of 5. Given that, I would say stick with your smaller barbs unless you can accommodate these fish.
Bill - 2012-09-30 I have two yellow fin tin foils. I also have a 12' bala shark,12' pleco,2 blue garomies,3 danios,cory cat,pitca cat,flying fox cat,red tail shark, albino red tailed shark, south american cichlid. This is all in a 55 gallon tank, the black red tailed shark calmed my tin foils down the first week. This is a busy tank , but some of my fish are 9 years old.
Anonymous - 2012-09-19 Good comment John, 'Having a good enough filter to rid the Tinfoil Red Tail Barb waste. To add to this: I also do a water change every 2 weeks. I feed my fish 2 times a day, this keeps the Tinfoil Red Tail Barb full, which leads to less of a desire to pick on smaller fish . My two Tinfoil Red Tail Barb's are in a 40+ gallon tank with 1 black shark, 2 tiger barbs, 2 blue guami's, 1 gold guami, and an algea eater. All extremely satisfied living with each other.
Fish_Lova12 - 2008-10-19 I have had my Tin Foil Barb, Cosmo for a little over a month and it has grown really fast and bites my Spotted Silver dollar, but hes still alive. My Red Platy is dying, I think because of my tin foil barb. The red platy's tail is all messed up. I recommend this fish for a big tank like 30 or 40 gallons. Cosmo is fun to watch, especially when he eats. Sometimes he'll splash me. But, I'm gonna get rid of him this week. Any suggestions...
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Prabha - 2012-02-02 Buddy I gave him at the the same pet store in which I bought him a year ago....He was 3 inches when I bought him...now he is 8 inches. :) He killed every fish I kept with him...to your surprise he even killed my oscar too....stupid fish....Get rid of him first otherwise your precious silver dollar will be dead....his way of attacking is way more better...first he will bite off other fishes eyes and then he will target fins...then the end
Paulm - 2012-08-04 Tinfoils need to be in a group, otherwise they get insecure and aggressive. The same goes for tiger barbs. If you have three or more of them, they will stay busy with each other and not pick on the other fish.
mark - 2012-02-15 These fish are a shoaling species that should not be kept alone, they need to be kept in a group. Beware... these pictures do not show B. schwanenfeldi, they show B. altus
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Clarice Brough - 2012-02-16 Yes, like the Red-tailed Tinfoil Barb B. altus, the B. schwanenfeldii do like to school. The individual in the photo above was submitted by a photographer from Thailand. It is most likely a juvenile that's not yet developed the black shading, or possibly it's an albino or gold colorform. The picture toward the bottom of the page is a B. altus.
If anyone has a picture of a specimen showing the normal adult colorform (shaded tail and dorsal fin and black lines on the upper and lower portions of the caldal fins), we would love to feature your photo here.
nishith - 2012-05-05 How much time will the tin foil barb fish take to grow from 2 inches to 8 or10 inches?
Paulm - 2012-08-04 We have had a group of 5 tinfoils that we purchased from Petsmart two years ago. They were under 2' when we bought them. They are currently about 4' long and seem to grow at a moderate pace. They are very social, very pretty, very healthy and get along with our bala sharks and tiger barbs just fine. The only time we have issues is when someone gets sick or injured....then they get beat up a bit... We really enjoy them, but make sure to size your tank for what they 'could' get to be!
Laura - 2006-03-12 These are great fish and very entertaining. but, they eat ALL of the food in the tank! So far I am down 2 fish b/c the barbs hog all the food.
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gighi - 2012-02-22 They hog all the food because they're omnivores and they're growing ALL the time.
The adult Tinfoil Barb is an impressive and beautiful fish that needs a very large aquarium!
I have had a hard time with Tinfoil Barb in the past couple of months. Every time I clean my tank they will die. I lost two the first time thought it was something that i had done so I did some research on cleaning the thank with the type of filter that I have. Just yesterday I clean the thank did not use any chemicals at all and lost my last three. Any comments on what happening or did anyone have this happen to them and what can I do. Thanks Chris
What I do with mine is I let the water evaperate on its own and when its 20 percent gone I fill it up with treated water and clean out the filter every time it needs to be cleaned. They are hardy but mine tend to stress during this time so don't put them under a lot of stress
hope you have some better succes if you deside to get more
sorry for your losses though
It's the water it has to be almost the same temp as well as chlorine free. Get a bucket put a drop of prime everytime you fill it up. They are being stressed so put something in the way to catch the water so you wont have a big splash
Change only 20-25% of your tank water every week. And put anti chlorine . you fishes should do fine.
I bought my first barb fish last night. I bought one tinfoil barb. He seems to stick to the bottom of the aquarium and isn't as social as my other two (green tiger barb and tiger barb) fish. Should I be worried about him? I've been really protective over him since I noticed.
One, he is probably stressed. Two, he won't school with the other barbs as he will become a much larger barb at 14 inches! You should really get at least one other tiger barb and two more tinfoils. However, you will need a minimum of a 48 gallon tank for this amount of fish.
Tin foil barbs like to be in school and you should bring more 3-4 tin foil to make him happy. But again it will require a really big tank so a atleast 2-3 should make him active and and give him a secure feeling.
I have 4 tin foil barbs that are about 12 inches long. Bought them 14 yrs ago. They were about 2-3 inches when first purchased. I recently lost their cichlid companion of 8yrs. They are doing well in a 125 gal tank. But I perform water changes every week to keep the tank clean. I also have a filter for a 230 gal tank that provides good oxygen and a significant amount of current. I guess they can live longer than 10 yrs if well taken care of.
Hi - I have three Tun Foil Barbs and bought them when they were very small - the guy did not warm me that they are going to grow so large! They seem happy but I think they need more space, so I have a 4000 lit fish pond with koi fish in there, and I was wondering if I could transfer them to the pond? They will have much more room to swim and my koi's are all quite large already, so I don't think they would view them as food - any thoughts or advice on this? Otherwise I think I am going to have to try and find another hime for them which would be sad, but if thats the case then so be it, the fish need more space at the end of the day -thanks!
I have 8 tiger berbs,3 green barbs, 9 cherry barbs & 3 plecos i would like to add tinfoil barb to the group, can they cope??
The Tinfoil Barb is a shy fish. You didn't say what size tank you have, but these guys need to be kept in a group and in a very large tank... 225 is suggested for a school of 5. Given that, I would say stick with your smaller barbs unless you can accommodate these fish.
I have two yellow fin tin foils. I also have a 12' bala shark,12' pleco,2 blue garomies,3 danios,cory cat,pitca cat,flying fox cat,red tail shark, albino red tailed shark, south american cichlid. This is all in a 55 gallon tank, the black red tailed shark calmed my tin foils down the first week. This is a busy tank , but some of my fish are 9 years old.
Good comment John, 'Having a good enough filter to rid the Tinfoil Red Tail Barb waste. To add to this: I also do a water change every 2 weeks. I feed my fish 2 times a day, this keeps the Tinfoil Red Tail Barb full, which leads to less of a desire to pick on smaller fish . My two Tinfoil Red Tail Barb's are in a 40+ gallon tank with 1 black shark, 2 tiger barbs, 2 blue guami's, 1 gold guami, and an algea eater. All extremely satisfied living with each other.
I have had my Tin Foil Barb, Cosmo for a little over a month and it has grown really fast and bites my Spotted Silver dollar, but hes still alive. My Red Platy is dying, I think because of my tin foil barb. The red platy's tail is all messed up. I recommend this fish for a big tank like 30 or 40 gallons. Cosmo is fun to watch, especially when he eats. Sometimes he'll splash me. But, I'm gonna get rid of him this week. Any suggestions...
Buddy I gave him at the the same pet store in which I bought him a year ago....He was 3 inches when I bought him...now he is 8 inches. :) He killed every fish I kept with him...to your surprise he even killed my oscar too....stupid fish....Get rid of him first otherwise your precious silver dollar will be dead....his way of attacking is way more better...first he will bite off other fishes eyes and then he will target fins...then the end
Tinfoils need to be in a group, otherwise they get insecure and aggressive. The same goes for tiger barbs. If you have three or more of them, they will stay busy with each other and not pick on the other fish.
These fish are a shoaling species that should not be kept alone, they need to be kept in a group. Beware... these pictures do not show B. schwanenfeldi, they show B. altus
Yes, like the Red-tailed Tinfoil Barb B. altus, the B. schwanenfeldii do like to school. The individual in the photo above was submitted by a photographer from Thailand. It is most likely a juvenile that's not yet developed the black shading, or possibly it's an albino or gold colorform. The picture toward the bottom of the page is a B. altus.
If anyone has a picture of a specimen showing the normal adult colorform (shaded tail and dorsal fin and black lines on the upper and lower portions of the caldal fins), we would love to feature your photo here.
How much time will the tin foil barb fish take to grow from 2 inches to 8 or10 inches?
We have had a group of 5 tinfoils that we purchased from Petsmart two years ago. They were under 2' when we bought them. They are currently about 4' long and seem to grow at a moderate pace. They are very social, very pretty, very healthy and get along with our bala sharks and tiger barbs just fine. The only time we have issues is when someone gets sick or injured....then they get beat up a bit... We really enjoy them, but make sure to size your tank for what they 'could' get to be!
These are great fish and very entertaining. but, they eat ALL of the food in the tank! So far I am down 2 fish b/c the barbs hog all the food.
They hog all the food because they're omnivores and they're growing ALL the time.