My "Yellow Fin" Tinfoil Barbs are approaching the 7" mark and don't look to be slowing down anytime soon. I have been thinking more and more about re-homing these guys. I think they are getting too big too fast; this is a problem for me for the following reasons:

1. Bio-Load
2. They are food hogs. I think it is affecting the growth of my other fish.
3. Flow of the tank. They are a more jittery/fast moving fish... my oscars and other fish are much slower movers.
4. They will probably continue to grow and eventually outgrow the tank.

Reasons for keeping them:
1. I have grown a bit attached to them.
2. Possibly reduce aggression in other fish (dither)
2 They do give more movement to the tank.
3. They are kind of a cool "Shiny School"
4. My mother bought them for me not long after I got the 140 gallon.

My options for re-homing are pretty limited:
1. Sell the fish on craigslist.
2. Drive nearly 2 hours to the nearest Fish Store.
3. Find another tank for them at my house.
4 Make a makeshift pond in my garage.
5. Give the fish away to anyone that may have a body of water that is heated and filtered.

I am at a crossroad here and would be curious to here your thoughts/ideas. Although I am thinking most of the opinions will be base around getting rid of fish so that the Oscars have more tank to themselves; inturn having better water quality due to the decrease in bioload. I wonder how much the barbs produce waist; even though they eat alot, i don't see them poop much or waist food in general. They are efficient little guys when it comes to food.

Cebo, I know your exact dilemma I had the same one not long ago. The thing you have to remember is barbs get HUGE! And they are massive food hogs. Nobody can make this choice for you, and only you know what is right for your tank. Maybe you should place an add on Craigslist, and if you can find them a home then great. I like having the option of selecting a home for them rather than giving them to a LFS who I know is only there to sell the fish.

Good Luck Honey

It may be a wise choise.
people may disaggree but barbs need very very large tanks to thrive.
Yours are pretty laid back, but they are still very busy.
I had a tiny barb and after placing it in a six foot tank, he finally came to normal behaviour.
He really needed the swimming space.
I may hace done the same , Cebo.
And once they mature, you'll still have to rehome.

I would consider keeping two or three of them rather than re homing all of them
Just because they are shiny and look nice....who cares about bio load if you are sensible enough to keep up with the maintenance...witch I know you are cebo
My opinion.

Four words for you...more tanks bigger tanks....Shaz

When i set up my 180g some of the fish i bought were 6 tin foils for £15, bargain

I love the look of them but they grow and grow big. I had to rehome some fish, and 6 big schooling fish were the ones to go. Look at the alternatives, what other fish will you rehome, or if you get another tank for them , think about what else you could put in it

in my opinion its a no brainer

Nicki--Sue wrote:

Hi Nicki. Thanks for the input. I actually put the fish on craigslist about 2 weeks ago and havent got any takers. So I was thinking the same thing as you there. . I was asking for some cash though ($50), I will begin lowering the price. I probably even would be willing to give them away for free, if I knew they would be in a good situation with a large body of water. (heated and filtered ofcourse )

Noddy wrote:

Yup, I think your right Noddy. Thanks for the input.

STAFFIE wrote:

Thanks for the input Staffie. I like your style though staffie. Those were my thoughts too, to an extent. I think when it really boiles down to it, I feel like my goal was too make my Oscars the featured fish in the tank... and everything else was supposed to be a compliment to them. The Barbs have been to greedy with the food and have taken away from "the goal" of having the Oscars as the main fish.

Sharyn wrote:

very true words spoken there sharyn. I think we would all have a couple of 600 gallon tanks at our house if we could, right.

delboybully wrote:

I hear what your saying delboy. It is a simple decision, and I am sure that once it is done I will look back and feel like I made the right decision. But right now, it is a bit of a decision I am not taking lightly. and ofcourse the decision would be a lot easier if I had some one in my town that could take them properly...

THanks for the feedback. I will keep everyone posted on how this progresses.

A LFS told me once that tinfoil barbs are quite easy to sell up to 6inches, above that their value goes down a lot due to the large size they are. In other words people buy small TFbarbs not knowing how big they get. The guy also said that for real big ones 10inch+ they give them away to people with big enough tanks!!!

delboybully wrote:

Ouch.

Thanks for the info DDB. I will keep that in mind during my re-homing process.