Denison Barbs

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jb1997mcd

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Hello,

I am setting up two new 120 gallon tanks. One is going to be a community tank - neon tetras, celestial danios, some peaceful kuhli's and shrimp. The other is going to be a semi-agressive tank with tiger barbs, green tiger barbs, a rtbs, and some semi-agressive kuhli's. Which tank would be better for the denison barbs? I figured I was going to get 3-5. I will adjust the stocking of the other fish depending on which tank would be better to put the denison barbs in.

Thanks for your help.

jb
 
Im pretty sure they would do well in with Tigers as long as you have plenty of Tigers, im considering doing the same at the moment.
 
Yeah there will be plenty of barbs. I read the denison's are pretty peaceful and the lfs that I go to always has them in their planted tanks with lots of tetras and other community fish.
 
Hello,

I am setting up two new 120 gallon tanks. One is going to be a community tank - neon tetras, celestial danios, some peaceful kuhli's and shrimp. The other is going to be a semi-agressive tank with tiger barbs, green tiger barbs, a rtbs, and some semi-agressive kuhli's.

Which species of Kuhlis are considered semi-aggressive? I'm thinking you have perhaps mistyped here, for instance meaning a group of Red Tail Botias or alike, who are certainly semi-aggressive verging on spiteful at times! ;)

As for Denisons Barb, in all honesty they suit neither of those stocking plans. From a personality point of view, they would be far better in the "community tank" as Red Tail Black Sharks consider tankmates of similar colours or shape to be a threat in their territory at the tank bottom, so the Denisons would likely be harrassed constantly. However, the "community tank" stocking you have planned will need tropical temps around 25C, which is not good for the health of sub-tropical Denisons. Being kept at ~25C all year round will keep their metabolism permanently high and will consequently shorten their lifespan considerably, when they should really be kept at 16-20C for most of the year, with a "summer season" approaching 25C for a few months per year.

The sorts of fish that will combine well with Denisons Barb (a group of at least six made a big difference to mine), enjoying temperate water with moderate-high current, include species like...

  • Danios (Giants and the smaller ones such as Zebra)
  • Barilius*
  • Panda Garra*
  • Shiners
  • Other temperate barbs (Golden; Odessa; Black Ruby; Rosy etc.)
  • Slected tetra (Blind Cave; Buenos Aires)
  • "Hillstream Loach"

* Species I have with mine, that I am looking to rehome, in order to concentrate on African riverine fish in my 120g
 
Thanks Goat,

Let me ask you this. If I dedcided against the rbts(denison much more desirable for me) and wanted to keep the denison in with other barbs and kept the water temp at 70-74 would this be okay? I just checked denison barb info and one site says 60-77 and the other says 72-84 (that is a pretty bad discrepancy).

I guess I could go with some more peaceful barbs.


oh and the kuhli thing, I saw it at the lfs, but it looked more like a cat than a kuhli but that is what they called it. I figured it would be a decent bottom dweller with the barbs.

thanks again,
jb
 
There are some truely shocking profiles out there on the internet, partly due to anyone being able to upload information so easily onto the web these days, so it always pays to compare several profiles and find the common ground. As a general rule, I use seriouslyfish, but there are some great speciality sites like planetcatfish.

16-25C is the common temp range given at most sites for Denisons, but these rarely mention that the upper extreme of that range only happens in nature for a short spell in the year. Try and combine them with other fish that enjoy a swift current and are happy at 18-20C (64-68F) at the lower end of their temperature requirements.
 
120 gallons?

Seems quite large for a "neon tetras, celestial danios, some peaceful kuhli's and shrimp" tank. Do you mean 120 litres?
 
thanks again guys,

hmmm - may have trouble getting my tank down to 64-68 without a chiller. may have to rule out the denisons.

zod, they are 120 gallong tanks. i know that is large but i like the neons and want to increase my shcool (may also consider some cardinals) and the celestial danios. I plan on havin schools of 20-25 for each and then getting a good amount of freshwater shrimp. The goal is to have it covered in java moss.

jb
 
So exactly what is the average lifespan of a Puntius denisonii in the wild? I have always kept them at higher than 25C and mine last about 4 years +/- when I have started with 2 inch fish. They are about 6 inches when they begin to die. I find this is very similar for SAE although SAE last 6-12 months longer and may get a bit bigger than the roselines do.
 

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