anyone have gold barb?

[gagaliya]

so after about 2 month setting up my planted tank i finally ordered my fish:

10x tiger bar 10x gold barb 4x true SAE from ****************

the gold barb in the picture looked really nice with gold colors however what i got was just a bunch of colorless fish. For those of you with gold barb, do they ever turn gold?

 

[fishman1979]

i have 2 gold, and they are a gold color with some black spots

 

[switchcats]

When mature and happy, they are quite colorful fish. Mine have gold bodies, creamish bellies, and the males have more black spots along their sides, and develop a greenish tinge along there too.

 

[gagaliya]

hey thanks for the response i have two followup questions

is it normal for the gold barbs basically to go nuts and swimming around in the bottom of the tank in 1 school in the same style as ants on fire or headless chicken?

also i noticed ALL of them have red gills, am really hoping it's not some kind of gill fluke. Does your barbs also have red gills?

so far i am having no luck feeding them at all, all my fish food are floaters that stay on water surface but all of my fish hangs at the bottom half of the tank

 

[Chuck_T]

if its flake food just a hold a pinch underwater and let go they sink

 

[Needeles]

Hello, I have 4 Gold Barbs and my get alittle nutty at times too. One of them even like to swim with the cories I have. I think he is alittle confused .I was told this can be do to breeding. I have not seen any breeding but it is fun to watch. I have had mine for about 4 months and they seem healthy so I don't think you have to worry to much there. Mine also are gold color with a black circle by there back fin and a cream color bellies. Mine don't have red gills though. I have heard that high pH levels can cause red gills, I may be wrong though. I have the same problem with them not eating the flakes but I have found they really like the Bottom Feeder Sinking Shrimp Pellets. They will pick them up and even carry them around in the mouth until the pellet softens up. They also seem to like Algae Wafers. Try the above foods, I can bet they will eat them right up. The shrimp seems to be there fav though. Hope this helps ya out.

And just a note, Gold barbs are considered schooling fish so yes they will swim in a schools at times. I started with only 2 and when I added the other 2 I noticed a big difference. The 2 barbs I had at first are much happier now.