Prices on cherry barbs vary between $3 and $6, depending on availability. Cherry barbs are by no means expensive to purchase or keep. Their price, hardiness, and breeding frequency make them excellent fish for budget-conscious fish keepers.
As far as cherry barb prices are concerned, the most expensive cherry barb is a dead cherry barb. Keeping to the basics of cherry barb keeping will ensure they live out their allotted four to seven years.
Cost Of Cherry Barbs
The initial purchase price of single cherry barbs ranges between three and six dollars, depending on availability. A school of six costs between fifteen and thirty dollars, depending on their age and variety.
Cherry barbs are usually sold in groups of six since they are schooling fish. Still, you can buy individual ones to replace a deceased fish to balance the school again.
Cherry barbs have a lifespan of five to seven years when kept in optimum cherry barb friendly conditions.
Cost To Keep Cherry Barbs
Cherry barbs do not require unique aquariums, food, or medicine. As long as cherry barb’s basic needs are met, they will thrive. Therefore, they are cost-effective fish to keep.
Factors Affecting The Price Of Cherry Barbs
Cherry barbs are not always readily available, which influences their price. Tropical Sri Lanka is the home of cherry barbs. They can also be found in Mexico and Columbia.
Overfishing resulted in these little red darters being added to the red list of the IUCN for endangered species. Fluctuations in availability will lead to fluctuations in price, but cherry barbs are still affordable additions to any aquarium.
Cost Of Keeping A Cherry Barb Aquarium
Cherry barbs enjoy aquariums that mimic their natural habitat, easily achievable with a basic aquarium or tank, plants, substrate, filter, water pump, and clean water.
These hardy fish are tap-water friendly and thrives in water with a pH level between 6,5 and 7. Keep cherry barbs in twenty-five-gallon tanks and larger, filter the water and have a water pump circulate the water.
Cherry barbs thrive in slow-moving water. Do fifty percent water changes weekly.
Remember that these are schooling fish, so keep at least six per aquarium. The more cherry barbs, the brighter and more lively the tank will appear.
Using a dark substrate and many living plants will create a darker background, making the cherry barbs’ color pop.
Cost Of Feeding Cherry Barbs
Cherry barbs are omnivores. They feast on tiny insects, red and black worms, algae, crustaceans, and plankton in their natural habitat.
In captivation, they will survive and thrive on a combination of standard tropical pellets, flakes, sinking wafers, and algae.
Cherry barbs enjoy their salad and will munch shelled peas and zucchini with gusto. Not to mention the occasional treat of frozen or live foods. The following are cost-effective, protein-rich foods for these little munchers:
- Shrimp brine
- Daphnia
- Blood worms
These little fish tend to overeat. Cherry barbs must be fed three times a day since they are very active and need to regularly replenish their fuel reserves.
Therefore, provide the amount of food they can devour in under three minutes at each meal. Excess amounts of food will lead to overfeeding and contaminate the water.
Cherry barbs are not aggressive but tend to be aggressive eaters that devour fish smaller than them, even their own offspring and small shrimp.
Feeding cherry barbs is a breeze since they are not picky eaters, and you need not spend excessive amounts of money on exotic fish food. All the food they need is well-priced and readily available.
Cost Of Cherry Barb Medicine
Cherry barbs may get infected with white spot disease from time to time. White spot disease, or ich, as it is also known, is the most common visible fish disease.
Ich diseases are parasites that can enter a tank through equipment or by adding new, unquarantined fish.
Early detection and treatment of the entire tank are easy and affordable. The good news is that once cherry barbs recover from white spot disease, they tend to have a higher resistance against re-infestation.
Cost Of Breeding Cherry Barbs
Breeding cherry barbs is something to seriously consider. Earlier in this article, we mentioned that cherry barbs were placed on the red list of the ICUN for endangered species due to overfishing.
Breeding cherry barbs will not only provide an additional stream of income. Still, they will also contribute hugely to the survival of the species.
Suppose breeding cherry barbs are anywhere in your future as a fish enthusiast. In that case, you need to prepare and cure a separate tank in advance for the eggs and fry.
Cherry barbs scatter their eggs. If you do not remove the eggs from the tank, the parents will have a feast!
Female cherry barbs become more round when filled with maturing eggs. Therefore, keep a close eye on the female to see when she lays the eggs.
The male will follow the egg-laying female, fertilizing the eggs externally. Once fertilization has taken place, carefully remove the eggs.
Carefully place them in a separate tank. The fry will hatch within a few days and swim around the tank.
As you can see, there is not much needed from the breeder’s side regarding breeding cherry barbs. Apart from setting up a separate tank, keeping the eggs and fry safe from their cannibalistic parents, and feeding them, you can sell the excess babies for profit.
Cherry barb females lay between two hundred and three hundred eggs per breeding session, making the thought of breeding cherry barbs for profit even more enticing.
Breeding cherry barbs will significantly increase their numbers in the aquarium trade. Which in turn leads to less overfishing in their natural habitat. Due to their popularity, pet shops are always looking to buy healthy cherry barbs.
Conclusion
There are few things as mesmerizing as a fish tank. Keeping fish does not only soothe the senses but allows for the survival of many fish species, such as cherry barbs. Bright red, cost-effective cherry barbs contribute significantly to the aesthetics of any aquarium.