# What is a goood number of Denison Barbs to get?



## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

What is a good number of Dennison Barbs to get? 

Does it have a minimum recommended number like 3 or can you have just 1 if you wanted to?

Also, is there an idea number of get? 

Thanks.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

Schools of 6+ are suggested because they are a schooling fish. Depending on the size of tank, a small school may be all you can house. About 8-10 fill up a 55g for reference.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Freemananana said:


> Schools of 6+ are suggested because they are a schooling fish. Depending on the size of tank, a small school may be all you can house. About 8-10 fill up a 55g for reference.


Well, I have a 75 gallon tank but its looks pretty busy with all the fish I have. 

Maybe I will go a little light at 5 Densons.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

I wouldn't recommend them for a 75 gallon, my LFS has 8 in a 500 gallon bowfront, they use ALL of that swimming space, they are VERY active fish. You can keep them in a 75, but I personally wouldn't after seeing how active they really are. They also are big fish, they hit 6" easily.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

sohankpatel said:


> I wouldn't recommend them for a 75 gallon, my LFS has 8 in a 500 gallon bowfront, they use ALL of that swimming space, they are VERY active fish. You can keep them in a 75, but I personally wouldn't after seeing how active they really are. They also are big fish, they hit 6" easily.


Wow, so many just 1-3 fish then? 

I think 3 is the minimum school number. 

I would like to at least have 1 of them. 

Live Aquaria said only 4.5 inches for MAX size? Is this info wrong?

Only 1/2 inch bigger than a pearl Gourami according to them. 

Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: Denison Barb

Thanks.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

SpaceLord said:


> Wow, so many just 1-3 fish then?
> 
> I think 3 is the minimum school number.
> 
> ...


I would just skip them altogether, I wanted them for my 55, but they would probably be a bit cramped. It's not the number of fish, but the amount of space that they use when they swim. 4.5" is incorrect, I have personally seen 6" fish at my LFS. Honestly, I would go for some smaller fish, and have a larger school.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

I have kept Denison Barbs in a 75g. I don't see why you wouldn't. I had one around 4-5". They mostly swam into the current and then drifted across the tank in the current and then swam back over and over. 

I have also seen denison barbs that were probably 10" long in a several thousand gallon tank at Sea World. 

Take it all with a grain of salt. I don't think they are the most active swimmers. Mine didn't race around, nor did the ones I saw at Sea World.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Freemananana said:


> I have kept Denison Barbs in a 75g. I don't see why you wouldn't. I had one around 4-5". They mostly swam into the current and then drifted across the tank in the current and then swam back over and over.
> 
> I have also seen denison barbs that were probably 10" long in a several thousand gallon tank at Sea World.
> 
> Take it all with a grain of salt. I don't think they are the most active swimmers. Mine didn't race around, nor did the ones I saw at Sea World.


Is that Seaworld Florida, Texas, or California? I was actually of going to the one in Orlando before they shut down the whale program. 

I am looking on the seaworld website and I don't even see Denison barb listed as an animal they have. 
https://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-orlando/animals/know-our-stars?from=Top_Nav

Its probably not a big enough deal for them to even list it on the website. I bet if you surveyed the people going, most of them are probably going for the rides, whales or dolphins not the dension barbs. 

Do you remember where at seaworld you saw them? 

How many Denison barbs did you have in your 75 gallon tank? 

They were all around 4-5 inches? Did you have a planted tank? 
What type of water flow did you have? Just current from the filter or something like that? 

Thanks.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

SpaceLord said:


> Is that Seaworld Florida, Texas, or California? I was actually of going to the one in Orlando before they shut down the whale program.
> 
> I am looking on the seaworld website and I don't even see Denison barb listed as an animal they have.
> https://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-orlando/animals/know-our-stars?from=Top_Nav
> ...



It was Orlando and it was in one of the tanks on the way to the Manta Ride. I had 8 or 9 Denisons in my 75g, but it also had a 55g sump and was densely planted by the time my school was that large. I had one that was significantly larger than the rest and most were about 3". I had around 500 GPH going through a spray bar and a second return pump I rarely used. I had no issues with nitrates, aggression, or fish dying. I had a neon and a ram die in that tank.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Freemananana said:


> I have kept Denison Barbs in a 75g. I don't see why you wouldn't. I had one around 4-5". They mostly swam into the current and then drifted across the tank in the current and then swam back over and over.
> 
> I have also seen denison barbs that were probably 10" long in a several thousand gallon tank at Sea World.
> 
> Take it all with a grain of salt. I don't think they are the most active swimmers. Mine didn't race around, nor did the ones I saw at Sea World.


I went to seaworld and your story checks out about seeing the Denson barb. 

I took a picture: 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=Tkt6NXpBRV8wOGJFTGtFQXc0anhHNTRkbWJrcEFB


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

That's really 10"?
Using the plants for scale, they look about half that.

From what I have seen (quite a few of my LFS have had display tanks with old adults for years), 6" seems to be the max size, wild or captive raised. Genetics always give chance to a giant or dwarf among the norm though.
My LFS does have a couple old true SAE that measured 8" (when they usually max at 6")

I've watched these guys quite a bit and they seem quite social among themselves. I would say 5 is the bare minimum for a healthy social group. If the tank isn't large enough to accommodate that size of a group, I wouldn't get them.

Sohank makes a good observation about fish behavior/activity being in much larger tanks (though often those still don't compare to the massive water bodies they live in, in nature). I have observed similar behavior differences of fish such as small tetras/raboras being kept in maybe 20-90 gallons versus 125-several hundreds, even thousands of gallons of water (as well as online vids of the fish in their natural habitats) and it's something you need to personally witness to truly see and appreciate how more space can make fish happier. Same can be witnessed among larger fish, just needing even more space to compensate size ratio. Depends on the species of course. I do highly recommend to anyone, to witness fish behavior/activity in various tank sizes to really see how much of a difference it really makes (once you see it, it's hard to go back to keeping anything in smaller tanks).

With that said though, our relatively small tanks in comparison to nature, we as hobbyist/fish keepers draw the line somewhere. As with that size comparison, I'm sure the majority of us, including myself, do keep fish in "okay sized" tanks (which are actually small in comparison). But anyways, to cut to the answer, 5 roselines/dension barbs can be "okay" for a 75 gallon, though I personally would prefer them in longer footprint (5-6+ ft wide) tanks as they are larger active swimmers. Just my personal opinion from observations.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

I had 3 till a water change rather inexplicably killed them and a black neon.
That was in a 55. I think like most species the tank and stocking level will determine the size.
mine were maybe 4" or so. I will replace them next time petsmart has a sale.


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## bigbadjon (Aug 6, 2015)

I have a thread on denison barbs that I just bought. Check it out.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

I don't plan on going back to Seaworld, but that isn't the tank I was referring to. Neat to see you got some photos though! They do get large, but not extremely so in the home aquarium.


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## AWolf (Jun 13, 2014)

Could get 25 Rummy Nose Tetras instead. My favorite schooling fish lately. Active, striking color, tight schooling.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

WaterLife said:


> That's really 10"?
> Using the plants for scale, they look about half that.
> 
> From what I have seen (quite a few of my LFS have had display tanks with old adults for years), 6" seems to be the max size, wild or captive raised. Genetics always give chance to a giant or dwarf among the norm though.
> ...


I don't think the fish was 10-inches however they did have the Denson barb at seaworld. Its possible they had them in other places as well. I went to the seaworld website and they had like " meet our animals" and I did not see a Denson barb but I figured they were not one of the main animals. 

I just wanted to confirm that Densons barb do indeed exist at seaworld. I was in the "shark tank" and this display was off to the right of the room almost in a hidden area and I had to actually make an effort not to skip over it. It was saying how some fish are called skarks but are actually not sharks. I guess the Denson barb must be one of those fish. 

I ended up getting 3 Denson barbs. That is all the dension barbs they had. I actually had to travel to 2 Petsmarts to get just the 3 denson barbs since the other one did not have any in stock! 

You are preaching to the choir on the larger fish tank. I once had made a deal with a guy who had a 250 gallon Acrylic aquarium on Craigslist and I was all set to pick it up and my father freaked out about an aquarium that size. I also almost got a 150 gallon Petsmart Aquarium on Black Friday but my dad told me that he did not care if it was a good deal, that it weighed too much or was too big. 

I guess for now, the largest I'm going to get it a 75 gallon. Perhaps there is a way to make an acrylic aquarium by slowly welding together pieces of thick acrylic sheets. There are chemicals which will act as a liquid weld for Acrylic.

I guess the 2 limiting factors is how do you move such a heavy thing? (I am no body builder) and where do you put something so large. 

I had a large goldfish in a 10 gallon tank, he could not even move, I upgraded him to a 20 gallon tank which was better but he could still not move that much since he grew a little, so I upgraded him to a 29 gallon tank which is all I have room for. The Goldfish can swim a little but it seem like the minimize size you would want for a fish like that. 

I would love to have a larger aquarium ( minimum 110 to maybe 250 max size) and see how the fish all interact in such a large scale. 

So what size aquarium do you have if you don't mind my asking? 

Thanks.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Lonestarbandit said:


> I had 3 till a water change rather inexplicably killed them and a black neon.
> That was in a 55. I think like most species the tank and stocking level will determine the size.
> mine were maybe 4" or so. I will replace them next time petsmart has a sale.


What water conditioner chemical were you suing? API, Seachem,etc..? Does your tap water have Chlorine or chloramines? 

How do you change your water? Do you have like a python or something and fill up the tank first then add conditioner? 

Do you monitor the temperature of the incoming water vs the tank temperature? 

I had like 80% of the black neons from Petco die and about 0% of the black neons for Petsmart die. I don't know why but black neons seem to be better from my local Petsmart then Petco. 

Let me know about your water change procedure. 

Certain water conditions from even the biggest companies mixed with chloramines from tap water will result in pure ammonia as a byproduct. This has happen to be before.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

AWolf said:


> Could get 25 Rummy Nose Tetras instead. My favorite schooling fish lately. Active, striking color, tight schooling.



Dude, I can't even get 1 rummy nose tetra. I went to this place 30 miles from my house which has the largest selection of fish in my area and they asked for some rummy nose tetras and I was giving a black ruby barb instead. I guess the person there got confused. The black ruby barb is not a bad fish either. Where did you buy the rummy nose tetra? Do they have them at Petco/Petsmart? 

Thanks.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Freemananana said:


> I don't plan on going back to Seaworld, but that isn't the tank I was referring to. Neat to see you got some photos though! They do get large, but not extremely so in the home aquarium.


 
Oh, they must have multiple tanks with them. I found this one in the shark tank area. The sign was saying about how some fish are referred to as sharks but are actually not sharks. 

It was kind of tucked away from the main line of people off to the side. I had to make an effort to see what type of fish were in it. 

The ones you saw were in the Manta ride line or just around that general area? Seaworld does not do well with signs and directions. I was lost half the time there. 

P.S. Did you like the Dolphin show? Seems like they have really stepped up their game from 15 years ago when I was last there.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

SpaceLord said:


> What water conditioner chemical were you suing? API, Seachem,etc..? Does your tap water have Chlorine or chloramines?
> 
> How do you change your water? Do you have like a python or something and fill up the tank first then add conditioner?
> 
> ...


No. This has been beat to death in another thread.
Never happened before or since. 5 tanks all 5-7 years old.
Parameters and proceedure not at fault. Just bad luck apparently.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## AWolf (Jun 13, 2014)

SpaceLord said:


> Dude, I can't even get 1 rummy nose tetra. I went to this place 30 miles from my house which has the largest selection of fish in my area and they asked for some rummy nose tetras and I was giving a black ruby barb instead. I guess the person there got confused. The black ruby barb is not a bad fish either. Where did you buy the rummy nose tetra? Do they have them at Petco/Petsmart?
> 
> Thanks.


Yea, Petsmart won't carry them for some reason, in my area at least. But the local Pet Supplies Plus has them often.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Lonestarbandit said:


> No. This has been beat to death in another thread.
> Never happened before or since. 5 tanks all 5-7 years old.
> Parameters and proceedure not at fault. Just bad luck apparently.
> 
> Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


Maybe your tap water had too much fluoride( industrial waste byproduct), you should check to see if your water supply add fluoride to the water. Reef aquariums only use seawater or R.O water mixed with salt.

This is why I bought a water distiller and won't drink the tap water. 

Its just those are expensive fish, a member here said they used to cost like $75 per fish. I would hate to have an unexplained death to avoid it from happening again. 

Sorry for your loss.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

AWolf said:


> Yea, Petsmart won't carry them for some reason, in my area at least. But the local Pet Supplies Plus has them often.


Good luck trying to get Petsmart to ever order you a fish. They claim they don't even know what is being shipped until they open the box. 

They say its an Algorithm or something. 

I might have better luck with Petco. 

Thanks.


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## nikonD70s (Apr 6, 2008)

lol @ 10"

they max at 6"-6.5

but normally only get to about 5"-5.5 in captivity. 

you're fine with 6 in a 75. they are active swimmers.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

Petco will usually order for you.
Talk to the aquatics manager.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

SpaceLord said:


> Oh, they must have multiple tanks with them. I found this one in the shark tank area. The sign was saying about how some fish are referred to as sharks but are actually not sharks.
> 
> It was kind of tucked away from the main line of people off to the side. I had to make an effort to see what type of fish were in it.
> 
> ...




The ones I saw were in the Manta ride line. 


Anyway! Maybe I was mistaken and exaggerated, that's not out of the realm of plausible. Plus it was a giant tank and I was basing fish size on the neons next to them. It wasn't like it swam up to the glass. Easily could have been an optical illusion. But they looked massive. Also could have been a different fish entirely that I mistook for a Denison barb.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Freemananana said:


> The ones I saw were in the Manta ride line.
> 
> 
> Anyway! Maybe I was mistaken and exaggerated, that's not out of the realm of plausible. Plus it was a giant tank and I was basing fish size on the neons next to them. It wasn't like it swam up to the glass. Easily could have been an optical illusion. But they looked massive. Also could have been a different fish entirely that I mistook for a Denison barb.


That is probably why I did not see it. I was too scared to go on the Manta ride. 

Do you remember if you saw bright colors like yellow on its tale? 

It could have been an Iridescent shark, paroon shark, or some of these freshwater catfish "sharks" types. 

The Denison barb is sometimes called like the roseline shark

How come you will not be going back to seaworld? Crowds too trashy? Disney's better? Employees too creepy? rides too scary? Blackfish boycott,etc...? :grin2:


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

I can't wait to get some, if I ever do a large display tank. These are great temperate fishes, so you don't have to spend a fortune keeping them through a cold winter in a large tank. Some even say they should have a winter period where they see about 60F and then up to a short peak of about 77F in summer. I think this is part of why we see them suffocate so often in heated tanks, while almost everything else survives.


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## SpaceLord (Feb 29, 2016)

Nordic said:


> I can't wait to get some, if I ever do a large display tank. These are great temperate fishes, so you don't have to spend a fortune keeping them through a cold winter in a large tank. Some even say they should have a winter period where they see about 60F and then up to a short peak of about 77F in summer. I think this is part of why we see them suffocate so often in heated tanks, while almost everything else survives.


I live in Florida and my goldfish tank( no heater) is now at 75 degrees and my community fish tank(with denson barb) is 77 degrees( heater turned off) 



I have it in a room with AC on full blast all the time. The only thing I can do is maybe run a chiller 

In the winter, I can get the temperature down a lot more. 

Those these fish are known to suffocate? 

Are these in tanks without air pumps and Co2 injected? 

Thanks.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

We have had quite a few reports on here where the denison barbs were almost the only fish to die off, usually in conditions that indicate low oxygen as the main cause. many things can reduce oxygen including plant respiration, increases in temperature, insufficient circulation to surface..........


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