I have a fish (Barb) and a Red Cap Oranda. The Barb is orange with a big white spot on its sides and is starting to get black fin tips, def new growth but still pretty transparent looking. I brought him home over thxgiving break and I brought home the Oranda yesterday for winter break (not enough room to bring them both home at the same time). To my surprise, the Barb had grown about 1 inch! He was a little baby just a few weeks ago. I got him for free b/c I'm a bio major and fish were used for experiments, and they were all sick in the tank so I rescued the little guy. I'm worried about the tank size he's in with growing that fast. I am either going to get him a bigger tank OR put him with the Oranda and buy a big tank for both of them. BUT I don't know about compatibility! The Oranda I've had for almost a year now and is over 2 inches long (including caudal fin). The Barb is an inch and a half now. I know sometimes size is an issue with compatibility as well as spp. Will this work?
2006-12-18 04:51:25 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
Yeah, barbs and orandas aren't compatible. Barbs are fin-nippers (except cherry barbs) and would probably terrorize an oranda. Also, orandas are coldwater fish, needing water temperature around 68-72F; barbs are warmwater fish needing 76-79F.
I'd just get the barb a bigger tank. Do you know what type of barb it is? You could likely get a 20 gallon tank, and add a few barbs for company.
2006-12-18 04:58:16 · answer #1 · answered by Zoe 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
As Zoe stated....not compatable. Orandas can get pretty big, so make sure that he's not in a tank that's too small either.
Barbs are nippy. They are (sort of) schooling fish. But if you do get more, try to keep them in odd numbers (3, 5, 7 etc) so that they can't pair off and beat the snot out of each other one on one all the time. With the odd numbers, they keep each other busy and tend to do less damage. If you have just one barb (other than a cherry) don't put anything in there with him (other than barbs like him, same aprox. size) He has nothing to keep him busy but biting the tails off slower fish.
2006-12-21 15:47:18 · answer #2 · answered by yama 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they will not get along together but usually barbs need around a 30 gallon tank. you can go to http://www.liveaquaria.com/search/default.cfm for more answers.
2006-12-18 13:19:36 · answer #3 · answered by sum1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋