Aquariums: The most underrated “goldfish” lookalike

A quick story time!

When my mother-in-law decided to start a fish tank, my husband and I were excited to help her set it up. We cycled the tank for a few weeks, assuming she wanted a small school of GloFish. But when we asked, she surprised us—she actually wanted goldfish!

In our culture, goldfish symbolize prosperity and wealth, but the problem was her tank size, only 30 gallons. Goldfish are messy and need a lot of space, so we had to find a better alternative.

At the time, we were all new to fish-keeping, and didn’t know much about fish. One day, while shopping for dog food at Petco, we stumbled across the perfect fish—long-fin rosy barbs. They had the orange-yellow hues of goldfish, long fins, and best of all, they are hardy and stay small enough for her tank.

From then on, we were hooked. We introduced two more family members to rosy barbs, and now they have massive tanks in their businesses filled with them. Since 2021, my MIL has had eight, and only lost two—the rest are still thriving!

Thank you for reading! I just wanted to share about this underrated fish that doesn’t get enough attention 😀