All About Cherry Barbs: A Beautiful Characterful Fish for Smaller Tanks

Cherry barbs are an instantly recognisable aquarium species thanks to both their popularity and their dimorphism (the males and females look different). They are easy to get hold of, fairly easy to keep in a small to medium sized aquarium.
This little video takes a closer look at cherry barbs including their tank requirement, size, breeding, and general pointer on keeping them happy.
My favourite fishy stuff! (yes these are affiliate links :) )
Lights
Nicrew Classic LED - amzn.to/3fG3Uv6 - Traditional led light that's got a nice high output in a white/cool colour range. Makes plants look extra green.
Nicrew SKY - amzn.to/3Ktn45U - really nice light for natural looking tanks, also the one I use for filming.
Filters
Pat Mini - amzn.to/3fE1u0k - popular for a reason, just a superb little filter thats great for shrimp tanks and fish alike.
ASAP - amzn.to/3nBuytp - the old favourite and the one i return to most frequently.
Air Pump
AP-3 Kit : amzn.to/34UMA3q - Great little air pump, not a silent runner, but has been very reliable for me.
Tanks
Scaper 45 - amzn.to/3KBxG2H - a lovely high quality tank that comes with a super strong light, and a decent enough hang on back filter - perfect for newbies and scapers alike.

[@IndoorEcosystem]

About 18 months ago I got a group of 10 of these after watching your video and they have become one of my absolute favourite fish! They are also the toughest, most peaceful fish I have ever kept! And seem to be shrimp safe. My shrimp population gets getting bigger! I've only lost one and was because it jumped out one night but a lid fixed that pretty quickly! I've moved them between quite a few tanks, and they have survived water temperature drops in power outages down to about 19c and right up to nearly 38c in summer heat waves! The seem to be highly resistant to disease as well... I lost a few other fish in the same tank to internal parasites but not these guys! They are insanely tough and super enjoyable to watch in a nice school.

[@mathdesm9306]

The perfect community fish, get 7-9 and you'll love them. I once saw a tiny baby shrimp land on the snout of a big male, he went 'No, I will not partake of that bread.' He turned his head and that was it.

[@joepvanginneken2837]

this has been one of my favorite types of fish for years. first I had 12 in a well planted aquarium of 80 cm where I found them to be quite aggressive towards each other. This behavior was over immediately after I transferred them into a 120 cm tank with 4 more of the same species. they forage all day long, and are rarely chased after each other. conclusion; put cherry barb in an aquarium of at least 100 cm. Ps: love your video.

[@christinecho779]

Cherry barbs look so beautiful. I think a 20 gallon long with lots of plants and driftwood, and a school of 12 would look amazing. 😍

[@tinymenagerie]

Thanks Christine! Yes that would look lovely, and so relaxing too :)

[@KevinMcC_7]

Love your energy and this helped me me realize I’m making the right call putting them in my new tank! Cheers

[@shubhamdandekar20]

Amazing video, I bought these a week back and I already in love with them, but after watching this video, these are my number one favorite now.

[@xerxeth1861]

Awesome video, very well spoken and clearly presented. I just got 10 Cherry Barbs, excited to add them to the tank!

[@Xenda]

Great video! I love these fish and you did them justice with this presentation. I'd like to add that they look amazing in a planted aquarium. Their red absolutely pops!

[@kimp7160]

Lovely video! Your video presentation was so easy to listen to and very poetic. I have had 6 cherry barbs in a species-only tank for a year now. This video really captures what I have come to love about them.

[@Gazlaahh]

Brilliant video. Probably the most accurate of any I have watched. I love the albino cherry barb.

[@dillonkentworth6718]

This video was very helpful! Good information to help me decide if I should keep them :).

[@DAdam-fo1md]

Thank you for all your work!🙏

[@Aemilius46]

I am Loving your videos!! ThankYou for All your Hardwork, dedication, effort, love you put into the videos And fish, and of course your enthusiasm!! 🥰 Cherry Barb are beautiful, peaceful, wonderful, sweet, and interesting Fish!! Another One of My favorites who I have Perfect memories of!! ❤️🖤🤎

[@hammer86_]

Beautiful fish. I've been watching a lot of aquarium videos lately as I'm thinking of getting back into the hobby after many years. So far you're my favorite. I love your "All About" fish videos. I'm sure much has changed since I was a kid. Would you consider doing a series on aquarium tech, like filters, lights, gravel, plants, etc. I'm particularly interested in filters. Anyhoo, thanks and bye byeeeeeeeee!

[@JJLewin1]

Thanks for another lovely fish review

[@jefflynn8889]

Great species spotlight Lauren! They are the perfect community fish for smaller species.

[@tinymenagerie]

Thanks Jeff :D

[@tinynina76]

Excellent, informative video.

[@johncameron4194]

Great video

[@angiebear8727]

Have one left from a school I got about 4 years back and she’s a good two inches at least. Recently added a bunch of young ones so she has friends again but she dwarfs them. Lol. She did seem really happy to have them join her as she’s been alone with a bunch of black skirt tetras for a few months now.❤

[@jasonpeculiar]

Beautiful! I'm always impressed with just how colourful the fish in your videos are. The barbs were indeed lovely, but a couple of those CPD's (I love CPDs) that made wee cameo appearances there were out of this world!! Also, I'm a little jealous of just how healthy and lush green those plants are in that tank. Well suited to a low light tank they may be, but I can't get my anubias, crypts or java fern to look as flawless as yours. I think I'm always too much or too little light, but you have it nailed in that tank. Superb! Thanks, Lauren.

[@tinymenagerie]

Thanks Jason :D That little male CPD is an escapee, he's still in the tank after I moved the rest of his shoal to a new set up. I'll get him one day but he's an absolute devil to catch :D My plants tend to get about 15-16 hours of light, as I put the light on at 9 in the morning before work, then off at about midnight and even the low light ones are fine.

[@jasonpeculiar]

@@tinymenagerie Ah just the one gorgeous CPD with multiple photo bombs. Nice. I have the same problem with my CPDs. They're in a heavily planted tank and they're just a nightmare to catch, without demolishing the scape in the process. Thanks for the info. I run all my tanks on 10 to 12 hours light, but I think I'll try leaving the lower lit ones on for longer like yours and hopefully that makes a difference. Thank you.

[@johncameron4194]

They are on my list of fish to get.

[@nickrays5583]

Thanks

[@qualitygoldfish2198]

Superb

[@MoreChannelNoise]

Just bought some today along with golden barbs. Was told by the assistant to be careful, lol, I have always found these and golden barbs to be placid and no trouble

[@aquatichighs]

I have a species only tank and they sure do explore!

[@matteocarro4025]

I love this Fish

[@divingaquarist]

What camera and lens do you use? The macro shots are awesome! Great vid as always!

[@tinymenagerie]

Hello! I have a Cannon EOS200d and use the 18-55mm lens it came with. The lens by itself wouldn't have enough zoom but luckily the camera has 3x digital zoom which I use. Certainly not pro kit, and I'd love a proper macro lens one day so the shots don't have that slight graininess, but for now it get's the job done :D

[@reshs7362]

Today, i saw my new cherry barbs harassing a golden snail. I tapped on the window, breaking up the naughty behaviour. It was the 2 males, not the females that were doing this. I love golden snails, they really do clean up the tank.

[@DashDrones]

Amazing, would they be ok in a 4ft tank?

[@blooky102]

Hmm my cherry barbs I kept have been doing well with my white clouds at a temperature of 20-15 Celsius so they are rather hardy, but if it gets to 12c and below it can stress them a lot and make them not eat(I know this from a recent water change), so if yours can withstand 20-15c , use a heater when putting in the colder water in the tank to not stress them.

[@jdssurf]

i added 10 adult and juvi cherry shrimp to my tank last night and today a shrimp tail was sticking out a barbs mouth, but the rest are being ignored so i'm wondering if it found that one dead, thoughts?

[@danielleal298]

Could you please do a spotlight video on Golden Barbs?

[@danielleal298]

Puntius semifasciolatus

[@Nanoscape30]

I just got 8 juvenile cherry barbs, not the red ones which i love alsi especially the red longfins are amazing, i love there faces and details on there face, the lines, the wiskers, i would say they are one of the best looking species of small barbs, gold barbs are one if my all time favorites, but i just got an order of 20 checkered barbs that i ordered to my lfs, im barb crazy right now to say the least, i have the cherry 🍒 's with a group of 8 beckfords red pencilfish and they compliment them so well i just cant get enough of them, so the regular cherry barbs im talking about are females??? And the reds are males??

[@michaelfox6820]

I have 6 of the longfins in a 10 gallon planted aquarium. I think two are males; one of which is a aggressive at times, chasing the others and the ember tetras. They all feed aggressively, but all of the fish do in this aquarium.

[@Nanoscape30]

@@michaelfox6820 yes with barbs, my rule of thumb is for every male, get atleast 2 to three females, male cherry barbs color is a vibrant red, the females are not red, more of an orange tan color, but do yourself a favor and always be on the lookout for females or like you said, you will see alot of agressive behavior, red panda barbs will try to kill each other 24/7 if there is not enough females, very agressive barb, but more females is always the best thing to have in a group setting

[@johncameron4194]

I’ve heard they can be at a lower temperature…I guess it depends on who you ask

[@Dassenkop]

Been following your channel for a few months now. Since the vids are usually/mostly with very dark background I'm wondering what setup you have, what plant, what lighting etc. Would you be able to do a vid on that or is there already one available on your channel. Thx.

[@tinymenagerie]

Hey Peter, thanks for the comment. I am working on a sort fish tank tour at the moment but to be honest all my tanks are kind of set up the same so I was worried it might be a rather boring video :D They all have a black background, the lights are nicrew skyLEDs or what ever came with the tank and I'm stopping using filters (bit of a trial). But I will definitely start doing videos about the plants. I might do each plant individually a bit like the 'all about' series with propagation info and things?

[@Dassenkop]

@@tinymenagerie Some plant vids sounds like a good idea. I'm still new and experimenting with plants. I have 2 tanks. One with a Nicrew RGB+W 24/7 and another standard superfish light. I think they are both low to medium lights since several plants have withered away or are looking very unhealthy despite them being considered easy plants according to the internet. Still trying to finds some plants that can accept the light schedules while also managing BBA or Staghorn algue (not sure which one it is). Recently added another amano shrimp and thread algue seems under control now. I also use an ASTA 20 light in one corner of my tank for my floating plants, which are doing very well.

[@tdannyV2]

How do you get your cherry barbs to color up like that? I been trying to figure out why some images of cherrys are so different in the amount red ^^'

[@tinymenagerie]

Hey! To be honest I think its breeding more than anything else. I don't do anything special with mine, they get fed the same hikari micro pellets I've always used, with a bit of frozen food every now and then. My cherry barbs have changed tanks a few times but its always planted and always on the dark side which helps a lot with colouration as it puts the fish in a mind to breed. Also they dull very quickly when they are stressed, my males go almost silvery. but.... i do think a lot of it is luck.

[@tdannyV2]

@@tinymenagerie thanks even if I am not sure how to get lucky xD

[@joepvanginneken2837]

good lighting, such as with RGB+W LED strips, makes the colors of fish and plants stand out beautifully. using a (tc 420) led controller to create lighting situations makes it even more beautiful!

[@leancove9662]

I am originally from Sri Lanka. I was an aquarist untill recently and have collected Cherry Barbs from three locations. The bright red ones are a species found only in one location and is the male. the other ones are less colourful but still beautiful and very interesting. In character they were all the same.

[@tdannyV2]

@@leancove9662 thanks i do have some now and love them^^

[@-_StrawberryGirl_-]

What size tank do you put them in? I was thinking a 10 gallon for 6

[@TimMars-zv7wj]

A 20 long should be absolute minimum for a group of 6 of these beauties!

[@apss5736]

hello

[@tinymenagerie]

Hi 😊

[@thtkp5]

I'm from Sri lanka. And it's prohibited to keep cherry barbs under the law of country. 😂 😂 😂 😂

[@BKWhite07]

interesting..why is that

[@Jnssing]

@@BKWhite07 idk for sure but usually those laws are because a certain species could possibly become invasive if released there.