Odessa Barbs - Look Boring In The Tank

[mrlewis1978]

Hi guys

A month ago I bought 12 odessa barbs from my LFS, of which 11 survived as one died straight away. In the store the fish showed vivid reds and a great reflective checkerboard pattern over the top. In my tank they seem to just be silver with a black spot, and some hints of reds. They are in a peaceful community tank with neon tetra, kuhli loach, zebra loach, and a mixture of corys. Their behaviour seems happy and energetic, but their colours are drab. Has anyone had similar or know how to improve them? They are beautiful fish when the display and it seems a shame.

Cheers

 

[lloyd]

could there be a problem with your water quality? what food do you feed them?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Any idea on the male/female ratio? I believe with Odessa Barbs it should be two (relatively drab) females per (vibrant red) male.

 

[mrlewis1978]

It is a mature tank with lots of healthy active fish, and excellent water stats so water quality isnt a problem. I feed them Ocean Nutrition flake food, live food, cucumber, algae wafers. All sorts I like to keep it varied. I have no idea of the male/female ratio as i'm not sure how to sex them. I know the males should display brighter reds, but since they are not fully coloured it is difficult... they were much brighter at the LFS though.

I keep them in a 220 litre tank, the only think that I can think of is since they have so muh more space to swim around in (their section in the LFS must have been about 40 litres for about 60 fish) that they do not need to show strong colours/compete or would this not make sense? I'm not an experiences barb keeper.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Females only show some reddy colour on their underside fins and the caudal penduncle (the bit that connects the tail fin to the rest of their body).

 

[mrlewis1978]

Surely I couldnt be so unlucky as to have 11 females....!?

 

[wirralbull]

Does lighting affect their colouring mayb a warmer spectrum bulb would help

 

[KkAaNnEe]

This is surely a case of colour as mentioned above, a warmer tube or pinkish coloured one should bring out the colour, or check your lfs lighting

 

[onidrase]

odessas aren't at all hard to gender: here's a picture of a male and female: http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/fishimages/0113_ticto_barb.jpg

they might still be a little stressed out from moving, it usually happens whenever I pick up colorful fish that settled in at the LFS and brought them home, they get all drab and stressed, sometimes it takes a month or two for them to be at their best.

 

[Acetone]

My Odessa's are always vividly coloured brilliant red stripe and an almost blue/black tinge in the edge of every scale.The colours tend to become more vivid the longer the Daylight Light is on (after 2 hours+ normally). I have 6 males 2 females also in the tank are 8 tiger Barbs which all get along fine

 

[Dazzler666]

What temp is your tank? From reading on the inywrnet they need lower temps so i would double check.

 

[MBOU]

Dim down the light a little, use one white bulb and one colour bulb, or better still, one low light bulb and one colour or two colours.

Also, the colour of the substrate makes a difference to these guys too! The darker the substrate, the brighter they fire up their colours.

One other thing, i couldnt see but do you have tank backing on? Dimming down the tank overall would help, backing, more decor, darker substrate etc...

They will becoloured up better in larger groups because there is so much more competition! Constant displaying over females.

 

[TekFish]

What temp is your tank? From reading on the inywrnet they need lower temps so i would double check.

+1 on temp these like lower temperatures like 20 - 23'c so if you're keeping with warmer water tetras like Neons that could be the problem.


TekFish

 

[Acetone]

again i do not think temp is a major problem. my tank is normally 24.5 but with the hot weather in the uk it has shot up to 27 and my Odessa's are bright red with the dark blue edges to their scales. i just make sure my water quality is good doing 30-50% water changes weekly and making sure i vac that gravel.

also only have daylight bulbs in mine light stones mopani wood and plastic plants (lots) with no background

 

[panda_cory]

The main reason for fish to lose colour is through stress but it doesnt sound like anything in the tank would chase or attack them. so it sounds like a mystery to me?