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Phoenix Barbs as dithers?

aquaticeye

aquaticeye

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Searched the forums a bit but didn't see anything relating to this topic, so thought I'd get some crowd funded wisdom.

Has anyone used Phoenix Barbs (spinibarbus denticulatus) as dithers in a Peacock Bass tank?

I know silver dollars are used quite often, probably to remain biotope correct, but haven't seen barbs / mahseers.

Phoenix barbs grow to a similar size to peacock bass, school well, and have nice reds that pop out down the line.

I recently acquired a group of 9 orino meta peacock bass at around 6-7 inches, currently in QT.

I've had a Phoenix Barb, solo, at around 7-8 inches. Thinking of expanding this group to 6 and having them for dithers / activity.

No post complete without some pics. One pic of the pbass in QT tank, and one of the phoenix barb at a smaller size (now about 2 in bigger, and reds coming in)

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I agree with The Wolfman. Because the phoenix barbs have a narrow body shape, I would want to keep them the same size or larger than the peacock bass. I don't think a hungry peacock bass would hesitate long before trying a phoenix barb 3/4 its length, and half the length would be a feeder any day of the week.
 
It should be fine... I have mahseer with my growout cichla and they are way too fast for the cichla to do any real damage. I've never seen the cichla actually try to eat the mahseer either. I also have some hampala barb with my large cichla that can easily eat the barbs if they wanted to. That being said, I never feed any live, which in my opinion could make the difference.
 
Love the info, grealy appreciate it. Good to hear of the Mahseers with the cichla. Sounds similar to about what I'm interested in trying to do too :headbang2
 
Alexandboi said:
It should be fine... I have mahseer with my growout cichla and they are way too fast for the cichla to do any real damage. I've never seen the cichla actually try to eat the mahseer either. I also have some hampala barb with my large cichla that can easily eat the barbs if they wanted to. That being said, I never feed any live, which in my opinion could make the difference.
Click to expand...

Just looked at Hampala barbs. Gorgeous fish! They grow huge!
 
I have 2 Phoenix barbs in my bass tank, they are bigger than the bass lol they do great.

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