(Please note that the fish shown in the photo is only a representative of what an adult specimen would look like. The color may vary based on the age and sex of the fish you receive.)
Scientific Name: Barbus schwanefeldi
Common Name: Red Tail Tinfoil Barb, Tall Barb, Tinfoil Barb
Adult Size: 12 inches
Life Expectancy: 12 years
Habitat: Southeast Asia
Minimum Tank Size: 100 gallons
Ideal Tank Conditions:
- Temperature Range: 72 - 81° F
- pH Range: 6.5 - 7.5
- Water Hardness: 2 - 10
Temperament: Semi-aggressive
Diet & Nutrition: Omnivore; will generally eat all kinds of live, fresh, and flake foods. To keep a good balance give them a high quality flake food everyday. They will also like some live food treats like worms or shrimps. Even though they like proteins, they need lots of vegetable foods. Vegetable supplements include vegetable based fish pellets, and also blanched lettuce or spinach.
Breeding & Spawning: This fish is not known to have been bred in the home aquarium nor is it known to be bred commercially. But they have been cultivated commercially in their native countries as food fish. Like other Cyprinid fish, Red-tailed Tinfoil Barbs are egg layers that scatter their eggs rather than having a specific breeding site. The female will release thousands of eggs, but the parents may eat the eggs and do not care for the young.
Gender: No external differences, though females are significantly rounder during spawning season.