False eight-banded barb

Eirmotus octozona

Also known as False tiger barb, Eight banded false barb

FreshwaterFish

False eight-banded barb (Eirmotus octozona) — The Wet Spot Tropical Fish · Used with permission

Care at a glance

Temperature: 73–81°F (23–27°C)
pH: 5.0–6.8
Adult size: 1.6 in (4 cm)
Minimum tank: 14 gal (54 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Blackwaters of the Malay Peninsula and western Borneo
Family: Cyprinidae

Overview

Keep this delicate little barb as a group of at least eight to ten in a quiet tank; it is peaceful, easily intimidated and feeds slowly, so it does poorly with pushy or fast tankmates. It swims in the middle water and suits a calm blackwater community of other small, gentle species. Feed it slowly and give it time to reach the food: powdered and fine flake, micro-pellet and tiny frozen or live foods such as daphnia and cyclops. A planted, softly lit tank of around 54 liters with leaf litter and gentle filtration suits it.

In the wild

The false eight-banded barb comes from peat-swamp and blackwater forest streams of the Malay Peninsula and nearby Sundaland, soft, acidic, tannin-stained water over leaf litter. Recreate that with a dimly lit, planted tank, driftwood, dried leaves to tint the water and gentle flow. Keep it warm and acidic, around 23 to 27 degrees Celsius, at pH 5.0 to 6.8, with soft, stable water.

Good to know

Eirmotus octozona is a small cyprinid reaching only about 4 centimeters, pale and semi-transparent with eight fine vertical bars along the body. Despite the tiger-barb pattern it belongs to a different genus and moves in a slow, deliberate way rather than dashing about. Its exact wild origin is uncertain. Its captive spawning is undocumented.

Did you know

It looks like a pale tiger barb with eight bars instead of four, but it is only a distant relative, and its true home is still unsettled: it may live in peat swamps of southern Malaysia rather than the Thai locality it was first attributed to.

Tank mates

False eight-banded barb is a peaceful, schooling species that keeps to the middle. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.