does anyone have any expierence with tin foil barbs are they suitable tank mates for oscars

um yes i do:P
go and have a look in the photo section, you will see "nellys 150us".......
there you will see my two oscars with three redtailed tinfoil barbs;)

do you like them as tank mates or no is there any downsides to them

for me there great fish to own,,,
i personally love them, there a wee bit jumpy....
also there greedy pigs,,,,
but there silver is an added bonus to the tank and there size:huh:

so there a lil jumpy and skitish and they can compete for food with oscars what will they eat and are thry messy like oscars

yes they compete but, luckily my oscars eat the large oscar hilraki pellets, and i found a bottom feeder pellets at the local pounds shop for a huge bag, which they eat, oscars at one end, tinfoils at the other, it works well, there not as messy as the oscars

Tinfoil barbs, and Red-Tail Tinfoil barbs, are great tankmates for Oscars; however, these are schooling fish that can grow big.

Tinfoil Barbs can go 14" easily; Red-Tail Tinfoil barbs up to 8". They are usually mislabeled, and info can be misleading.

A school should be minimum of 5 individuals but more is better, and considering two Oscars on top of that... it would require quite a big tank if you go for Tinfoil barbs.

I considered this idea for my 121UKgal tank, but my tank fell way short for this "project". So I went with Severums and Convicts as tankmates, since Silverdollars (my other "silver" option) are unavailable locally.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

i havent got the oscar yet i was thinkin red tail tin foil barbs would provide nice movement and a good tankmate

yes i have to say my redtail tinfoils are around 13inches
heres a picture of them one year ago, alot bigger now if you can make them out in my picture post thread....

wow what a nice fish did they grow quite quick

up to 1" a month for the first 6 months or so. then it slows down, much like oscars, a varied diet including some veggys would help

Here is my two Pennith. Unless you've got a very big tank, these are fish that you may well live to regret getting. That's not me just saying it, go on various forums and you'll hear the same old stories about these extremely greedy fish. They can grow to 12 inches, they like to be in shoals and they eat incredible amounts of food very quickly. There are not many fish that can compete against three or four of these guys. I only had two that grew to around 7 inches and I got rid of them. Someone has already mentioned they are quite skittish, they are easily spooked so keeping them in a small aquarium can sometimes lead to injuries.

If you want my advice, don't get any. Silver dollars on the other hand are just fantastic fish. They don't get much bigger than 6 inches and they will be a nice addition to any tank, I did have three, unfortunately one died but I've still got two and I'm really glad I got them.