# Barbs and plants?



## Rhaethe (Jan 20, 2010)

I have a 40 breeder with 5 cherry barbs and 12 african banded barbs. I do not see plant-eating behaviour out of either of them. The plants I have are wisteria, giant anubias, giant hygro, tiger lotus, dwarf sag.

Edited to note: I do feed Tom's veggie sticks as part of the tank's regular diet along with the flake (every other day or so), so it could be my barbs get their veggie fix that way instead of munching on my plants. Certainly, they get really super excited about the veggie sticks when they get thrown in.


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Rhaethe said:


> I do not see plant-eating behaviour out of either of them.
> The plants I have are wisteria, giant anubias, giant hygro, tiger lotus,
> 
> Edited to note: I do feed Tom's veggie sticks


Rats, my wisteria got eaten up, even though I was feeding them cichlid #1 vege flakes.

Where do I get Tom's veggie sticks? I googled for them and could not find them.


----------



## Kyrol (Feb 24, 2012)

I have tigers and as long as I feed them 2-3 times a day and give them something sinking they can dig around the bottom of the tank for they leave what few plants I have alone. 

I feed the tank a pretty good mix of food. Flake, sinking shrimp pellets, sinking granules freeze dried brine shrimp, and algae wafers.

I used to feed spinach and other leafy greens but I think they began to associate all leafy green as food.


----------



## Rhaethe (Jan 20, 2010)

Hilde said:


> Rats, my wisteria got eaten up, even though I was feeding them cichlid #1 vege flakes.
> 
> Where do I get Tom's veggie sticks? I googled for them and could not find them.


Argh, that was my mistake, I'm sorry. I meant Ken's Veggie Sticks, as in Ken's Fish Food.

I got mine through bsmith, here on the forum: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/s...154759-fs-smaller-portions-kens-food-buy.html

The "Veggie Sticks Plus Calcium", not the Spirulina. Most folks buy those for their shrimp, but my barbs eat them up like crazy.

As for Wisteria, mine grows fairly quickly and I am always trimming baby plants off it. I can send you some .... I don't think I'll be making a AAAA meeting any time soon, but even so, shipping to where you are won't be much.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

depends on the barb doesn't it?


----------



## brainwavepc.com (Sep 27, 2011)

I have a lot of cherry and gold barbs and a lot of different plants and they don't seem to bother it


----------



## Fdsh5 (Jan 3, 2012)

My rosy barbs are plant destroyers. The only plants they haven't bothered are water sprite and wisteria. The nibble on my java fern but don't destroy it


----------



## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

My tiger barbs love cucumber and zucchini but generally leave plants alone.


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Rhaethe said:


> As for Wisteria, I can send you some


Thanks but at present my 10G is over flowing with plants.



brainwavepc.com said:


> I have a lot of cherry and gold barbs and a lot of different plants and they don't seem to bother it


Well I have Arulius Barbs, Serpae Tetra and Red eye Tetra in my 29G tank. Planning on getting rid of the Red eye Tetra. At present only have moss and crypts in the tank. Was thinking that the gold barbs would be a better choice.


bpb said:


> My tiger barbs love zucchini and leave plants alone.


Hmm!! I think I will try that before buying other fish food.


----------



## TWINSCREWED (Nov 21, 2011)

My Odessa Barbs nibble here and there but nothing that affects the plants. I have swords red tiger lotus (dwarf as well) apotogeans, crypts and anubias. The only thing they are active on are varigated baby tears growing off a raft and with that only the roots.


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

They ate the creeping jenny. Thus been reluctant to add other stem plants. May try a few stems of bacopa.


----------



## chicken (Aug 22, 2007)

Fdsh5 said:


> My rosy barbs are plant destroyers


Mine were too. At first I could keep them off the plants if I kept them very well fed, and gave them veggies on a clip daily. But then they started eating the soft leaved plants. Eventually they ate everything, even anubias. They'd chomp on the tender new leaves before they even unfurled. You never saw an uglier anubias in your life! All the leaves were half chewed!


----------



## osxVictoria (Apr 11, 2012)

*More Questions*



Kyrol said:


> I have tigers and as long as I feed them 2-3 times a day and give them something sinking they can dig around the bottom of the tank for they leave what few plants I have alone.
> 
> I feed the tank a pretty good mix of food. Flake, sinking shrimp pellets, sinking granules freeze dried brine shrimp, and algae wafers.
> 
> I used to feed spinach and other leafy greens but I think they began to associate all leafy green as food.


So I can avoid my tiger barbs from eating my plants if I feed them non-leafy stuff? Hmmm, I plan on getting tiger barbs and was worried about that. Do you have alge-eaters in that tank as well? I wonder if that diet would be enough for the otto's I wanted. . . :fish:


----------



## Kyrol (Feb 24, 2012)

osxVictoria said:


> So I can avoid my tiger barbs from eating my plants if I feed them non-leafy stuff? Hmmm, I plan on getting tiger barbs and was worried about that. Do you have alge-eaters in that tank as well? I wonder if that diet would be enough for the otto's I wanted. . . :fish:


 To be honest it's luck of the draw. With any living thing you seem subject to changes of mind with out notice. Take for example my tiger Oscar he would suddenly decide that he didn't like anything being in his tank or where it was placed and would move everything not bolted down:angryfire.

My meal plan for them was..

AM
Flake and shrimp pellets "Pictus cat fish were in the tank and ate them Tigers would clean up."

PM
Sinking granules / freeze dried shrimp

an hour before lights out
Algae wafers

If they don't get bored they left my few plants alone. I started feeding spinach and other tender leaf greens they started chowing down on the plants about a week later. after they spent a week in my hospital tank and back on the above diet they left everything alone.


----------



## TWINSCREWED (Nov 21, 2011)

Hilde said:


> They ate the creeping jenny. Thus been reluctant to add other stem plants. May try a few stems of bacopa.


Try ludwigia mine don't even go near it but then from reading here seems I've been lucky with my Barbs. Just out of curiousity, how are they kept? Mine are in a moderate dtocked tank and a schoal of 7 in a heavy planted 65 gallon. Previously they were split 4 and 3 in similiar stocking and planting 30 and 65 gallon tanks with no plant aggression. Just wondering if it has something to do with the way we are keeping them.


----------



## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

I'm currently trying to grow out some Glosso (I know, shouldn't be hard) and my green/albino barbs are just not having it. I find stems floating daily.


----------



## DerekFF (May 24, 2011)

My cherry barbs ate my stauro repens down to the nubs

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


----------

