The cherry barb isn’t the only good beginner fish in the same family. The gold barb is another hardy freshwater fish that would make a great addition to a beginner tropical aquarium. This is a long lived tropical fish — expect your gold barb to live between five and seven years!
The gold barb is colorful — not only golden in color as the name might suggest. The body is mostly gold but will have dark or black patches running down the sides of the body. It is a relatively small fish that won’t grow to more than three inches (eight centimeters) in length.
These fish can be nippers, and especially like to nibble at long trailing leaves from aquarium plants and long fins on other fish. Gold barbs may not be a good choice for a tank that includes long finned fish like betas, long finned tetras, and angelfish. Short finned fish — like other barbs — will be perfect tank makes for the gold barb. Your gold barbs will be happiest in a school of five or more, but don’t be surprised if you see them fighting amongst themselves to determine the pecking order!
Gold barbs are hearty eaters. If your gold barbs aren’t eating, there may be something off with the water in your tank. The main part of the diet can be fish flakes, but you should supplement that with other treats like live and freeze dried brine shrimp, bloodworms, and daphnia.
These fish tend to hang out in the middle and bottom regions of the tank. When breeding, gold barbs will spawn among any aquarium plants you have. Make sure you have plenty of plants — a thinly planted tank may get nibbled into nothingness. Males are usually smaller and more streamlined than females, and may turn a more orange color when ready to mate.
Tank information for gold barbs:
- pH levels between 6 and 8
- Temperature between 72 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit (22 and 28 degrees Celsius)
- Water hardness between 5 and 25
- Tank size of twenty gallons or more so they have room to swim as a school