Tankmates Idea For My Tiger Barbs.

Hi. New to the forum.

I got myself a AquaOne AR980 from ebay. It's a 215L tank with overhead drip filter.

I have 12 tiger barbs at the moemnet. Looking for some tankmates for them. This is what I have in mind.

12 Tiger Barbs

1 or 2 of Firemouth Cichlid or T Bar Cichlid or Blue Acara (one per species)
Or 6 Boesemani Rainbowfish and 1 cichlid

6 bronze or peppered corys
or 1 red-tailed black shark (and not getting a second cichlid)

My LFS sells firemouth cichlid in minature size so hopefully it will be able to grow up with my barbs. Their T-Bar and Blue Acara are on the larger size (T bar about 2" and BA about 3") so will probably wait til my fishes grow a bit more or they have smaller stock. I do like boesamani rainbows but I gathered I need at least 6 which will probably make my tank overstocked. They are not cheap either! Please correct me if I am wrong or let me know the minimum number I can keep of those.

This is a compatibility question but personal opinion also welcomed. Thanks.

pH7.8, dH 9, black sand. Enclosed a photo of the tank, before I change to sand. But the decor and plants are pretty similar.

Adrian

Don't know about suitable tankmates for tiger barbs but your tank looks lovely. How long has it been running?

Beautiful tank. You might want to post this in the New World Cichlid section. Lots of great folks there with really really good advice.

your tank is lovely. not big enough for rtbs or bosemani rainbows , but a group of corys and a single smallish cishlid such as sajica or firemouth could work

Tanks guys. Started running about 6 weeks ago now. As I said new to the hobby and have spent a bit of dosh on the tank...

...unfortunately I saw some boesamani rainbowfish on offer today and could resist. They only had 3, for £15 which is cheaper than what I've seen (2 for £13 and £6 each at other LFS). Will still need another 3 to go with them which I'll get soon.

I am now thinking whether I should get a medium cichlid at all since when all 18 fishes grow up it will fill the tank quite a bit. Thinking maybe another 2 Rams or gouramis now, but I think I am limited by my pH.

Also got myself some cory trilineatus, but sold to me as cory julii. Nevermind!

Adrian

Just be aware that Tiger Barbs can be fin nippers and a Gouramis feelers can also be very attractive to them. As they are the first into the tank, you may find they have claimed the tank as their own. You could always go for different coloured barbs. I have green tigers and they are stunning.

How many males are in that group of new Bosemani Rainbows? Ideally, you want there to be twice as many females than males in the group and the sooner you can get three more, the better.

How many cory catfish did you get? Hopefully 6+

The tank layout looks great by the way, you shall have to post a video clip or two in the near future of your new fish exploring it!

I love your tank . I currently have 7 tiger barbs and 7 green tiger barbs and now and again will nip my blue acara's tail fin, i would say the green tiger barbs are the worst for nipping. Like the other members have said they love nipping at long trailing fins.

Keith.

the secret with tiger barbs is to have the group as big as possible , this usually keeps any nipping/agression within the group. 12 like youve got is pretty much ideal. if i was you i would take the 3 bosemans back and swap them for a single firemouth. bosemans as you know should be in groups of 6 or more and an adult boseman can easily hit 5 or 6 inches .

i agreee with carl in that i wouldnt risk slow moving long finned fish such as gouramis with tiger barbs .

Thanks.

I have 5 normal, 4 green and 3 albino tiger barbs. I got myself 6 "Julii" cory, which turns out to be trilineatus. I got 3 young rainbowfish, so I am not sure of their gender. I will get 3 more tomorrow from another LFS.

Observing them when I first put them in, the barbs are naturally curious and was nipping at the corys. They have stopped now I think. They haven't bothered the rainbowfish as they are bigger(longer) than the barbs. The rainbows are a bit shy at the moment. 2 are swimming together and 1 is hiding. I can't sex them but going by the horizontal band on 1 or 2 of them and their behaviour I think I either have 1 male 2 female or vice versa. I need to check again before getting some more.

I'll take some more photos when I get a chance.

I didn't mention this before but the reason I got odd numbers of barbs was because at one point I got a 2-3" jack dempsey. I learn the lesson the hard way and had to take it back the next morning. I might try to swap one of the regular tigers for an albino so I have equal numbers. I am now naturally wary of getting medium size cichlid, even though the JD was probably an exception. The other thing that persuaded me toward the rainbows were the fully grown ones on display at the LFS. They really do have lovely colour and at fully size (or at least I think they are) they should be ok in my tank. They also have rams in their tank but most if not all LFS use RO water (I think). Mine is pH7.8 and as I understand it's no good for Rams. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for all the idea though.

Adrian

as said previous;y i would strong;y advise against getting 3 more bosemans and would take your 3 back sand swap for a single small.medium cichlid such as a firemouth. i doubt the ones you saw in the shop were full grown. if they were it would of been plainly obvious that your tank wouldnt comfortably house a group of 6 . full grown they will typicly be around 4.5 to 5 iches altho 6 is certainly possuble altho unlikely. a firemouth will be absolutely fine with your tiger barbs. i had tigers in witrh my severums acaras and firemouths and didnt lose a single 1 .

the rams you see will almost certainly be in just plain tap water. very few lfs use ro water for freshwater species . a very few will use it if they stock discus , but it tends to be an exception rather than a rule . if in dout just ask .

markandhisfish said:

as said previous;y i would strong;y advise against getting 3 more bosemans and would take your 3 back sand swap for a single small.medium cichlid such as a firemouth. i doubt the ones you saw in the shop were full grown. if they were it would of been plainly obvious that your tank wouldnt comfortably house a group of 6 . full grown they will typicly be around 4.5 to 5 iches altho 6 is certainly possuble altho unlikely. a firemouth will be absolutely fine with your tiger barbs. i had tigers in witrh my severums acaras and firemouths and didnt lose a single 1 .

the rams you see will almost certainly be in just plain tap water. very few lfs use ro water for freshwater species . a very few will use it if they stock discus , but it tends to be an exception rather than a rule . if in dout just ask .

Click to expand...

They were in a Roma 200. There were actually about 8-10 different rainbows in there, plus rams and corys, and they were all probably full size.

Kind of partially made up my mind on getting a T-bar to complete my setup but will be waiting til next week before getting that as I think my tank bacteria needs to catch up first! Will also be monitoring the forum for advice.

Adrian

Adrian,

If I might add gently... research, research research.