Tin Foil barb Growth

Question
Help: We bought tin foils barbs cause we liked ones we saw at a friends house while getting guppies. We had them in a Hex tank, but have since moved them to a 55 gallon. The are housed with Giant Danios and a Angel fish, all seem to get along fine.  Is there anything I should feed them to get them to grow faster,, we have had them a year and nothing.  I feed the fish daily at the same time and am currently feeding flakes.  Do we need to remove the Danios in order to make them grow?

thanks!

Answer
Ken,


  Since they are omnivorous, the Tinfoil Barb will generally eat all kinds of live, fresh, and flake foods. To keep a good balance give them a high quality flake food everyday. Even though they like proteins, they need lots of vegetable foods. Vegetable substitutes suggested for these fish in the aquarium are cooked lettuce, spinach, or oatmeal.

The Tin Foil Barb will usually grow 1 inch every 4 -6 weeks for 6 months and then they grow no more. Sometimes a reason they don't grow is because the tank they are in is too small. A 55 gallon tank is the absolute minimum for these fish and that is by itself. When you start adding other fish, the tank needs to grow as well. These fish need to be in a group of 6 or more. To house them correctly, and have 6 to 7 barbs you will need a tank approximately 800 gallons

Tin foil Barb needs a 55 gallon tank all by itself.
Giant Danios need a 30 gallon tank just for one fish.
Angel fish needs to live in a 60 gallon tank.

All of these tank sizes are for one fish of that kind. As you can see, you need a 145 gallon minimum. If your tank is smaller that that, then that might be a reason the fish are not growing. Since they are a year older already, I don't think anything you feed them will help. I also do not believe there is a food out there that will help them grow.

Good luck with your tank.