Barbs

[F.O.H]

i have been offerd 5 barbs for a month due to my friends going away due to personal reasons and is unable to look after his tank.


any way would they be ok with puffers?

 

[Fella]

i have been offerd 5 barbs for a month due to my friends going away due to personal reasons and is unable to look after his tank.


any way would they be ok with puffers?

What puffers?

The blanket answer without knowing any more details would be "definitely not".

 

[Castellop123]

It's a "no" most of the time... are they small barbs... have you got dwarf puffers... lots of factors to consider...

 

[F.O.H]

these barbs are pretty big compard to the puffers and no they arent dwarfs its a 8 pufferthey shouldbeok for A WHILE THEREARE LOTS OF PLACES TO HIDE AND IT ISNT EXactly a small tank

 

[The-Wolf]

given that there are hundreds of species of barb and hundreds of species of puffers;
how on earth can anyone answer such a nonspecific question?

 

[DarkEntity]

these barbs are pretty big compard to the puffers and no they arent dwarfs its a 8 pufferthey shouldbeok for A WHILE THEREARE LOTS OF PLACES TO HIDE AND IT ISNT EXactly a small tank

Erm im assuming you mean its a Figure 8 Puffer. In which case Definately not as Fig8's are Brackish water fish not fresh like Barbs generally are.

 

[Fella]

If it's a figure 8 puffer, then yes, it can be kept with tankmates depending on the fish, however, barbs make a poor choice, as DarkEntity says, they're usually encouraged to be kept in brackish water (slightly salty) and most barbs will not tolerate this.

No one can really help you until you answer the following questions though -

1. What puffer is it?
2. What tank size?
3. Is the water brackish already?

 

[nmonks]

While Fella's basic point is spot on -- the common barbs aren't really brackish water fish -- it's worth mentioning that in a low end brackish tank (to SG 1.003) there actually are an awful lot of cyprinids, including barbs, that could be kept. The question is whether you'd want to, as a lot of them tend to be big and pretty messy (thing goldfish) and water quality is a critical issue with pufferfish. In other words, even if you could combine them in terms of water chemistry, you'd need a good filter to make sure the water quality stayed where you wanted it.

Anyway, roach and dace are the classic brackish water cyprinids in England. Both are common in the Thames estuary. Among the tropical barbs, the following are are salt-tolerant according to Fishbase:

Puntius sarana
Puntius ticto
Puntius amphibius
Puntius filamentosus
Puntius sophore

Cyprinids as a group include quite a few other salt-tolerant species, and at least one species that live in the sea, Tribolodon brandtii.

Cheers, Neale