are they breeding

[fish_keeper2]

every couple of days one of my TBs get chased around by my 2 largest ones. before this it has a nice round belly and after it is really slim. is it possible that this one is female and the 2 largest ones are male and they are breeding or at least trying to . they arent nipping or anything and it is still very much apart from the group. it usually happens the day after a water change.

 

[Lateral Line]

Highly probable. TB's are not difficult to spawn if the water quality is good enough. Deeper wider fish are females, males are slimmer and have a red nose, the red runs up over the head towards the dorsal fin.

Normally it takes more then a couple of days for a female to "refill" however.

 

[fish_keeper2]

the two doing the chaseing do have red noses. i see this behavor once every week or so. if they are it would be cool to raise tiger barb fry but they probly will get eaten before i can get to them.

 

[Grouchy]

Red snouts indicate males. To raise fry you would need to breed them in a separate tank, remove the parents, then raise them from egg to large enough to fend for themselves.

 

[fish_keeper2]

thanks. i may look more into that in the future.

 

[Lateral Line]

I described my Tiger Barb breeding set-up in this thread, although the technique is the same as I use for most Cyprinids and Characins, only the watr parameters and tank size needs adjusting really, sometimes the fry feeding.