# I now hate odessa barbs.



## AquariAM

So I've wanted these for a few years. Buy ten. Put them with my angel growouts in a 38. All angel dorsal fins are now trashed.

What happened I ask  

Several cigarettes later with the lights off I notice- as soon as the lighting's dim the angel's dorsal fins become odessa munchies. The angels huddle into a ball to try to avoid it.

Absolutely nooooooot a good combo. They are far more ravenous than I anticipated. They are nippers, they totally outcompete for food- and a 1.5" odessa consumes more food than a 1.5 toonie angel which is just wiiiild.

Im going to have to move these now... Probably back to the store... I'm Mr Return stuff lately... its really sad. Been making a lot of very bad fish choices since I got back into the hobby...


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## dl88dl

AquariAM said:


> So I've wanted these for a few years. Buy ten. Put them with my angel growouts in a 38. All angel dorsal fins are now trashed.
> 
> What happened I ask
> 
> Several cigarettes later with the lights off I notice- as soon as the lighting's dim the angel's dorsal fins become odessa munchies. The angels huddle into a ball to try to avoid it.
> 
> Absolutely nooooooot a good combo. They are far more ravenous than I anticipated. They are nippers, they totally outcompete for food- and a 1.5" odessa consumes more food than a 1.5 toonie angel which is just wiiiild.
> 
> Im going to have to move these now... Probably back to the store... I'm Mr Return stuff lately... its really sad. Been making a lot of very bad fish choices since I got back into the hobby...


Most barbs will love to munch on fins especially slow moving angels with long fins.


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## AquariAM

dl88dl said:


> Most barbs will love to munch on fins especially slow moving angels with long fins.


I've kept them with cherry barbs and assumed odessas would be the same temperment. They behave much more like tiger barbs, which I also hate. I totally didn't expect this. I was growing those particular angels to sell anyways so I don't care as much as I otherwise would but that tank was going to be for breeding Archocentrus cutteri whenever they show up and there is NO way I'm subjecting them to that kind of competition and threat to their fry. If the store doesn't want them back I'll just sell them. Kind of evil little fish...


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## dl88dl

AquariAM said:


> I've kept them with cherry barbs and assumed odessas would be the same temperment. They behave much more like tiger barbs, which I also hate. I totally didn't expect this. I was growing those particular angels to sell anyways so I don't care as much as I otherwise would but that tank was going to be for breeding Archocentrus cutteri whenever they show up and there is NO way I'm subjecting them to that kind of competition and threat to their fry. If the store doesn't want them back I'll just sell them. Kind of evil little fish...


Yeah, Cheery barbs stay mostly near the bottom and will not bother bigger fishy. It will take some time depending on your water for the fins to re-grow.
Anyway, I think you shouldn't have any problem selling them to people with Tiger barbs or fast swimming fishy.


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## ryno1974

I made the mistake of stocking my 65 planted with barbs thinking they would be a so-so community type fish. Wrong. I now have a 65 planted barb tank. They dont get long well with others. My smallest barbs are some itty bitty green tiger barbs and whenever I stick my arm in to do any kind of tank maintenance they try to bite me. No matter when they were fed last they are always looking to eat and always looking for someone to beat up.

Mean little fish.


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## Ciddian

Whhaaatt? Thats wild... Mine are sooo docile. The only thing they really go after are guppies. thats a shame..


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## bae

ryno1974 said:


> My smallest barbs are some itty bitty green tiger barbs and whenever I stick my arm in to do any kind of tank maintenance they try to bite me. No matter when they were fed last they are always looking to eat and always looking for someone to beat up.


Tigers are among the most feisty of the small barbs. Long ago I had a lot of checker barbs (Puntius oligolepis) and they were lively but unaggressive. If you can see from the downturned mouths that they are bottom rather than midwater feeders, they are likely to be a less agressive species.

I don't think they are attacking you -- probably the hairs and the bubbles on your arm look like interesting new live foods to them!


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## KhuliLoachFan

Hmm. Barbs. Who woulda thunk it.

Three of my my cherry barb males turned on the smallest male, and killed him, and then their attentions turned to the two females, one of which, they also stressed out, and eventually (I think) killed. I never found the bodies. And I'm down there every morning, every lunchtime and every evening. So it didn't take them long.

After one successful spawning, I now have (I believe) three males, and one female, and one lone baby that survived to 0.25" size. I am going by a slight sexual dimorphism, in my sexing guesstimate. 

Anyways, if the Cherry barbs are the more relaxed barb species, then I think I've seen enough Barbs for one lifetime. 

Maybe I could give them a better arrangement, and more hiding places, and they'd be less aggressive to each other. But the colors! OMG they're beauties.


W


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## AquariAM

Who ate the tips of the dorsal fins again last night...

I don't know what I'm gonna do with these things. If they're harassing the angels they're gonna harass the archocentrus and subsequent fry I meant them to be dithers for eventually...
The red is really nice though I'll give them that. If only they weren't evil.


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## AquariAM

I just fed the tank. An angel was moving towards some food on the surface 'too slowly' so an odessa 1/4 it's size nailed it right in the *ss full force to get it out of the way.

They're Tigerbarbs with a new paintjob man... total shame not what I expected. Such a pretty fish.


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## Cypher

You probably should have read more about barbs... barbs are _NOT_ good ditherfish - except for an full grown arowana tank - where they might become the occasional snack as well. Odessa barbs also get pretty large. If you want dither fish, go for small fish like threadfin rainbowfish, small species of killifish, small rasboras etc... small size and small mouths being the key.



AquariAM said:


> Who ate the tips of the dorsal fins again last night...
> 
> I don't know what I'm gonna do with these things. If they're harassing the angels they're gonna harass the archocentrus and subsequent fry I meant them to be dithers for eventually...
> The red is really nice though I'll give them that. If only they weren't evil.


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## AquariAM

Cypher said:


> You probably should have read more about barbs... barbs are _NOT_ good ditherfish - except for an full grown arowana tank - where they might become the occasional snack as well. Odessa barbs also get pretty large. If you want dither fish, go for small fish like threadfin rainbowfish, small species of killifish, small rasboras etc... small size and small mouths being the key.


They're for fish who are, themselves, douchebags (archocentrus) Im just concerned that these barbs may ACTUALLY be too douchey. I wouldn't say all barbs are douches though. My experience with cherry barbs has been that though they are very boisterous they are hardly a threat to the well being of other fish.


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## Cypher

LOL! Douchebagy fish hehe.



AquariAM said:


> They're for fish who are, themselves, douchebags (archocentrus) Im just concerned that these barbs may ACTUALLY be too douchey. I wouldn't say all barbs are douches though. My experience with cherry barbs has been that though they are very boisterous they are hardly a threat to the well being of other fish.


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## AquariAM

Cypher said:


> LOL! Douchebagy fish hehe.


You know it. There are many douchebag fish.


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## Cory

If you don't want them I'd love some more odessas. I lost a lot of the ones I ordered from abroad and it never hurts to have a second gene pool for breeding barbs. I am a barb addict, I aim to own most of the small barbs at some point . If you happen to see any clown, panda or rhombo barbs let me know. I also need to replace losses from those .


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## AquariAM

Menagerie has had excellent panda barbs in stock for a while now.
Can't give you the Odessas Cory if they don't work for me a friend already has dibs .


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## Cory

I've been meaning to visit that place for 2 years now...  It's just nowhere near anything I normally visit. No worries on the odessas, I just figured better me than a pet store if that was your plan .


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## AquariAM

Cory said:


> I've been meaning to visit that place for 2 years now...


Guess you better go. They're good pandas .


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## bae

Menagerie also has checker barbs now. My favorite barb.

Archocentrus spp don't need dither fish. Dither fish are to get timid fish to feel safer in coming out of cover. Archocentrus aren't exactly timid. And most barbs are too aggressive -- they scare the timid fish and act as anti-dither.

Btw, Odessa barbs were recently found in the wild, and have now been officially described -- Puntius padamya. http://www.aquarium-glaser.de/en/archiv.php?news_id=117

This site has a lot of great pictures and interesting info in both the 'News Archive' and 'Fish Archive' areas.


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## BeerBaron

Thanks Pablo, did the new Black Paradise settle in nicely??

We also have the Rhombo barbs in stock which are doing wonderful.Such a lovely, great looking and most importantly *peaceful* fish.

I <3 Pandas though



AquariAM said:


> Menagerie has had excellent panda barbs in stock for a while now.
> Can't give you the Odessas Cory if they don't work for me a friend already has dibs .


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## AquariAM

BeerBaron said:


> Thanks Pablo, did the new Black Paradise settle in nicely??
> 
> We also have the Rhombo barbs in stock which are doing wonderful.Such a lovely, great looking and most importantly *peaceful* fish.
> 
> I <3 Pandas though


This one is excellent  thank you very kindly


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## trailblazer295

It's funny how they are wusses in the light but once the light goes off they act tough to other wise. Throw some pirahana in there and settle the problem lol


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## AquariAM

Happy to say that after all this time they have calmed down. They swim slowly, are blinding red, beg for food, go to the top when I tap the trim, and have grown a lot. 

Now that they all come out all the time I've noticed I only have one female  ... I'll have to correct that. I'm extremely happy with them though now that they are behaving as advertised. They were stressed by something it appears. Not any more though.


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## AquariAM

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n88/111olbap/?action=view&current=Movie_0006.flv

Here's a video of the now very mellow barbs. Horrible quality.


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