Back To Basics With A Shoal Of Rosy Barbs

[coolie]

So.. as I doubt many of you recall, I returned to fish keeping after some years and stupidly thought I would try to breed something difficult like Neon Tetras.
 
Way more difficult than I thought and as my local fish shop only had tiddlers, it was hard to even get the shoal up to age without inevitable losses and other issues.
 
Some of my Neons lost their tails and died despite immaculate tank conditions.
 
Last weekend, I bought 4 female and 2 male Rosy Barbs. I understand it's one of the easiest egg scatterers to breed. They like cooler water which I have. They'll also eat algae.
 
I also can't find any little snails since I got them but didn't think they eat snails.
 
 
They are in my planted tank and are *tasting* everything but so far tou8ch wood, are not eating the plants like Tiger Barbs would. I've now
put a leetuce leaf in to distract them, and they are well into that.
 
Would any of you had considered that a mistake to put Rosy Barbs to breed in a planted tank?
 
 
 

 

[TallTree01]

My rosy barbs only ate the really fine leafed plants like hairgrass and ambulia. The swords and crypts and what-not were fine though.

 

[coolie]

Thank you for the reassurance. Yes they are not touching my Java Fern or Amazon Sword but have decimated a British variety of Cabomba which I collected locally.
 
They seem to have eaten the small snails as well which I find astonishing as I hadn't heard anything but loaches or catfish doing that.
 
They are almost like little piranha's on a continual feeding frenzy. Starting to show mating behaviour already, and males have been in my setup 2 days and have turned colour with very dark fin edges mainly on the dorsal? fin.