Gender Of Tiger Barbs

[gourami_fan]

Well I just bought 6 baby tiger barbs(regular) and was wondering if it's possible to tell the gender when they are still young, or do I have to wait till they mature to know what gender they are? Right now they all look exactly the same with same colouration and only about 3/4 of an inch to an inch long.

 

[I Love my fishies]

Well I just bought 6 baby tiger barbs(regular) and was wondering if it's possible to tell the gender when they are still young, or do I have to wait till they mature to know what gender they are? Right now they all look exactly the same with same colouration and only about 3/4 of an inch to an inch long.

Hi there if if you post a pic I will be able to let you know if they can be sexed yet

 

[gourami_fan]

I would like to but I havee no clue how to post a picture

 

[lilfishie]

upload them to photbucket.com (its free), then copy and paste the IMG tag into your reply box and the picture will appear when you hit reply

 

[Lateral Line]

The red nose and forehead of males tends to develop quite early.

 

[I Love my fishies]

Males are brighter with than females they have bright red noses and have slimmer bodies than females - if you notice any of your barbs doing head stands and spreading out their fins they are defantly male.

Females have less colour and rounder shape (bellies)

EDIT: all the tiger barbs in my sig are all males.

All males

Male spreading his fins if any of your Barbs do this while doing headstands (noses down tails up) that means they are males as this is the way they try to get a females attention

 

[gourami_fan]

Well so far none of them have red noses yet, but there are some slim ones and some a little more rounder than others. Their colours are all the same to me, none more brighter than the other. So I'm not sure, maybe they're all males . Hopefully not.

Its the second day and I've notice they started fighting eachother for a few minutes and then some started to back off while there were like 2 left still consistently pecking eachother, which lasted for quite awhile. The ones that fought changed colours from gold to a faint black while their stripes changed from black to a kind of metallic green.

 

[I Love my fishies]

Well so far none of them have red noses yet, but there are some slim ones and some a little more rounder than others. Their colours are all the same to me, none more brighter than the other. So I'm not sure, maybe they're all males . Hopefully not.

Its the second day and I've notice they started fighting eachother for a few minutes and then some started to back off while there were like 2 left still consistently pecking eachother, which lasted for quite awhile. The ones that fought changed colours from gold to a faint black while their stripes changed from black to a kind of metallic green.

yes their colours will change like that when they are fighting for dominance

Males seem to be more common than females so hopefuly you have a female or two in there

if you have a look on the dorsal fin (top fin) it has a red stripe at the top the female will have only a very small/faint red stripe there if any the males are bright red and thicker I hope this helps

If you are able to get some pic's up that would be great

 

[gourami_fan]

Ok so I tried to get some photos of my tiger barbs. I'm a little bad at this so bare with the quality.

Heres a picture of the 2 that fights the most (in the middle)

Heres another picture, you can really see the metallic green and red on their stripe

This pic has one doing a headstand and the 2 at the bottom fighting as always

 

[I Love my fishies]

The two fighting are def males

hmmm it looks like you may have all males not to sure though it is possible you could have a female.

It may just be the angle or the pic but do you see the Barb I circled it doesn't have the red stripe on its dorsal fin this would indicate that it is a female. (but again I am not sure if it is just the angle or pic thta makes it look like there is no red on te dorsal fin) this babr also appears to be less colourful than the others which is also a trait of a female Tiger Barb.



I love the rocks you have in your tank


that mettalic green sheen is very normal they turn that colour when fighting for dominance. The two that fight all the time are fighting for the #1 top position in the group if you add more Barbs they may settle down a bit but other than that you just have to let them fight it out.

 

[gourami_fan]

Well I checked them again and they all have red stripes on their dorsal fin, but the one that was circled just has a more thin and faint red stripe. If what you said earlier about the headstanding is true, then there must be a female right, or else the headstanding could be for something else?

Well whatever the case is, I'll just have to wait till they mature.

Thanks for all your help

 

[I Love my fishies]

Well I checked them again and they all have red stripes on their dorsal fin, but the one that was circled just has a more thin and faint red stripe. If what you said earlier about the headstanding is true, then there must be a female right, or else the headstanding could be for something else?

Well whatever the case is, I'll just have to wait till they mature.

Thanks for all your help

Hmm well they may just headstand out of instinct but if the circled fish only has a thin faint red line then it is quite possible it is a female.

A Tiger barb will usually become sexually mature when it reaches a length of 2-3 centimetres (0.8-1.2 inches) and this will typically happen when the fish is around seven weeks old.

So I would say that your Barbs are indeed Sexually mature

 

[I Love my fishies]

I was just thinking that it is odd that none of your barbs have red noses, see my male barbs noses circled in red this is how a males nose should look:

However all your Barbs cant be females as the have the thick bright red stripe on their dorsal fins.............. hmmmm interesting perhapse it is because they are still young (I think I can see a faint red colour on some of their noses)

 

[gourami_fan]

Yeah none of them has the red nose yet, but some of them have a faint orange tinge on the upper part of their nose and none around the mouth area. Probably have to wait a bit longer