rm
Passport
- Family
- Barbs
- Grows to
- 10 cm (3.9")
- 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)
PakistanIndiaNepalBangladesh
Care requirements
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On record for Rosy 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 114 L / 30.0 US gal
- pH 6–8
- Hardness 5–20 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 100 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Rosy barbs are bigger, tougher and cooler-blooded than most of the fish they sit beside in a shop. They come from northern India and Bangladesh, where winter water is genuinely cold, and they'll live happily in an unheated tank in a heated room — one of the few tropical-shelf fish that will.
A breeding male is worth waiting for: the whole body flushes a deep coppery rose, against black-tipped fins. Females and out-of-condition males are a plain silvery gold, which is why the fish is often overlooked in the shop.
They're active and boisterous rather than aggressive. Long-finned tank mates will get nipped, though, and that risk is real enough to plan around.
Tank setup
Give your rosy barbs length and open water. They're strong, restless swimmers that cover the whole tank, and a small aquarium turns that energy into harassment.
Keep them in a decent group with more females than males. Males spar and display constantly, and in numbers it stays among themselves.
Keep the tank cool. They tolerate warmth but they're at their best and live longest at the temperate end, and a cool room is an asset rather than a problem.
Plant round the edges. They'll graze soft plants, so tough species are the safer choice.
Choose robust tank mates. Nothing slow, nothing long-finned.
Feeding
Rosy barbs are greedy omnivores and eat anything offered, fast.
Give them vegetable matter deliberately. Unlike most barbs they have a real appetite for plant material, and blanched spinach, courgette or a spirulina-based flake keeps them from turning that appetite on your aquascape.
Feed protein alongside for colour and condition — bloodworm, daphnia and brine shrimp all work.
Avoid: an all-protein diet, which leaves them grazing your plants, and avoid one large daily feed when several small ones keep them calmer.
Filtration and flow
Give them decent flow and good oxygenation. They're powerful swimmers from flowing rivers and they use a current.
Filter well. They're large for a community barb, they eat a lot, and the waste follows.
Cool water holds more oxygen, which suits them, so the two requirements reinforce each other.
With plants
Rosy barbs are the one barb here you should be careful with. They eat soft plants, particularly when underfed on greens, and delicate stems can be stripped.
Choose tough, leathery species: java fern, anubias, vallisneria and cryptocorynes generally survive. Fine-leaved and soft-stemmed plants often don't.
Feeding them vegetable food properly is the practical defence, and it works better than any choice of planting.
Health
They're among the hardiest tropical fish available and rarely ill. Their cold tolerance makes them forgiving of a room that swings.
Fin damage in the tank usually means they've been nipping, not that they're sick. Check the other fish rather than the barbs.
Ordinary complaints turn up occasionally and treat normally. They handle medication better than most.
Breeding
Rosy barbs are among the easiest egg-scatterers to breed and a good first project.
Condition a pair on live food, put them in a tank with a mesh floor or a thick mat of fine-leaved plants, and they'll spawn in the morning after a vigorous chase. Warmer water and bright light help trigger it.
They devour their own eggs, so take the adults out immediately. Fry hatch quickly, grow fast and take microworm and baby brine shrimp early, which makes them far less demanding than most small cyprinids.
Tank mates
Avoid8
- Least Killifish Rosy Barb grows to 10 cm against Least Killifish at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Scarlet Badis Rosy Barb grows to 10 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Rosy Barb: barbs and common goldfish are a bad pairing.
- Demasoni Cichlid Demasoni Cichlid is not safe with Rosy Barb: african cichlids and barbs are a bad pairing.
- Electric Yellow Lab Rosy Barb and Electric Yellow Lab do not mix: african cichlids and barbs are a bad pairing.
Only with care40
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Rosy Barb is peaceful.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is aggressive and Rosy Barb is peaceful.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is aggressive and Rosy Barb is peaceful.
- Amano Shrimp Rosy Barb is a risk to Amano Shrimp: barbs and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
- Angelfish Rosy Barb and Angelfish are an uneasy mix: 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.