rm
Passport
- Family
- Barbs
- Grows to
- 7.5 cm (3")
- Lives
- 5–7 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- Mid-water
- Keep
- In a group of 8 or more
- Water
- 16–24 °C (61–75 °F)
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Care requirements
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On record for Gold Barb: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 76 L / 20.0 US gal
- pH 6–8
- Hardness 2–20 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 90 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Gold barbs are a bred colour form rather than a wild fish. The original is a green-gold Chinese barb with dark blotches down the flank; the aquarium version has been selected into a bright metallic gold that doesn't occur in the river.
They're peaceful for a barb, which puts them in the same useful category as cherry barbs. Active and busy without being pushy, and safe with most community fish that aren't tiny.
Like their close relatives they handle cool water well. A gold barb is comfortable several degrees below what a typical tropical tank runs at, and they do better for it.
Tank setup
Give your gold barbs swimming room and plant the edges. They're active mid-water fish that patrol constantly, and a long tank suits them far better than a tall one.
Keep them in a proper group. They form a loose hierarchy, males display at each other, and a few of them behave more nervously and more disruptively than a shoal does.
A dark substrate lifts the gold considerably. Over pale gravel they look bleached.
Cool is fine and often better. They're a subtropical fish and warmth shortens their lives.
Add floating plants for shade — the gold colour is bright enough that they benefit from somewhere to tone down.
Feeding
Gold barbs are unfussy omnivores that eat readily and quickly.
Include vegetable matter. Like most of their group they appreciate greens, and a spirulina flake or blanched vegetable now and then keeps them in condition and off your plants.
Feed live and frozen food for colour: daphnia, bloodworm and brine shrimp all work.
Avoid: overfeeding, which they'll always encourage, and avoid a diet with no plant content at all.
Filtration and flow
Moderate flow and good oxygenation. They're competent swimmers that use a current happily.
Ordinary filtration handles them. They're hardy, tolerant of a range of conditions, and one of the easier fish to keep well.
Regular water changes matter more than any particular chemistry. They'll adapt to most tap water.
With plants
Gold barbs are largely safe with plants but will nibble soft new growth if their diet is short of greens.
Tough species are the safer bet — java fern, anubias, crypts and vallisneria.
Plant the perimeter and leave open water. That gives the shoal what it wants and keeps delicate growth out of easy reach.
Health
They're very hardy and rarely trouble their keeper. Cool tolerance makes them forgiving of an unheated room or a failing heater.
Colour fading is usually stress or age rather than illness. A group in too small a tank or with pushy tank mates dulls noticeably.
Ordinary community complaints are what you'll meet, and they respond to standard treatment without difficulty.
Breeding
Gold barbs spawn readily and are among the more rewarding first attempts, partly because the fry are robust.
Condition a group on live food, then move them to a tank with a mesh base or dense fine-leaved plants. They scatter eggs after a chase, usually in the morning light, and eat every one they can find afterwards.
Remove the adults and the eggs hatch within a couple of days. Fry take infusoria first, then microworm and baby brine shrimp, and they grow quickly.
Tank mates
Avoid8
- Least Killifish Gold Barb grows to 8 cm against Least Killifish at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Scarlet Badis Gold Barb grows to 8 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Gold Barb: barbs and common goldfish are a bad pairing.
- Demasoni Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Gold Barb: african cichlids and barbs are a bad pairing.
- Electric Yellow Lab Gold Barb and Electric Yellow Lab do not mix: african cichlids and barbs are a bad pairing.
Only with care40
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is noticeably larger than Gold Barb and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is noticeably larger than Gold Barb and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Gold Barb is peaceful.
- Amano Shrimp Gold Barb is a risk to Amano Shrimp: barbs and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
- Angelfish Angelfish is a risk to Gold Barb: angelfish and barbs are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 58 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 2 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.