Tiger Barbs?

[FishHobbyist1564]

Are tiger barbs aggressive? I think they are good-looking fish and i was just wondering how they act toward each other, as well as how they act to other fish. Thank you, if you have an more info about tiger barbs, that would really help!

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

Scientific name : Barbus tetrazona

Common name : Tiger barb

Family : Cyprinids

Origin : Sumatra

Max size : 2.5 - 3"

Min. Tank size : 30 us/gallon

Description : Tiger barbs are probably the most popular of of all the barbs. The body color is basically a golden yellow, with four distinct black bars.

Care : Tiger barbs should be kept in groups of atleast six to ease aggression. When kept in small numbers tiger barbs will stress and nip other tank inhabitants.
They are hardy fish who do not cope well with high nitirtie levels. Tiger barbs will usually show warning of climbing nitrite levels by hanging still in the water with their head pointed down.

Feeding : Tiger barbs are hardy eaters who will accept a wide range of food. A varied diet of flaked, frozen and live foods is a good choice. Vegtables such as peas and cucumber should be used ocassionally to keep them in good condition. Care should be taken not to over feed them. An easy way to spot over feeing is their head pointed down motion.

Sexing : Males have deep orange-red fins and a bright red snout. The females are easily spotted by their comparitive lack of colour and their deep, convex body shape.

Breeding : Two tanks are ideal in order to breed tiger barbs. One tank should be stocked with at least 10 different specimens. A healthy pair should be chosen and placed in a tank which is no smaller than 30 us/gallons. The substrate should be medium sized stones ( marbles work good ) and large leafed plants. Tiger barbs are egg scatterers and will drop between 50-100 eggs which will then fall between the substrate preventing the parents from eating them. Although tiger barbs are very fussy about water spawning conditions, they do prefer softer water and low alkaline conditions. The parents should be removed from the tank once eggs are spotted. Incubation will last about 48 hours before fry start to hatch. Microworm and brine shrimp should be fed as well as finely crushed flake food.

 

[millym]

hi the info given by michael is excellent, we've had tbs for over 4 years theyre great fish real characters but do not put them in with fish with flowing fins (guppies,bettas etc) because they will inevitably have a nip at them.i have also heard of people who have had probs with tb's nipping at other fish like corys but we've had corys & other fish in with our barbs & have never ever seen this happen but its something to be aware of.
they also need a long tank preferably ie: no hexaganol tanks & lots of space as they are very active. they spend their little lives having dominance fights with eachother where 2 of them will spin around nose to nose back & forth with their dorsal fins stretched right up at full 'sail' hillarious to watch esp as the other barbs seem to like to gather round & watch the scrap. its a good idea to ensure you have lots of plants/cover/hiding places so that if one barb is having a rough time for a while (is picked on by another) they can escape & get away & hide. you also need to watch them if another is sick to ensure its not getting harrassed although in our experience the barbs we've had seem to leave a sick fellow barb alone. they also are very sensitive to nitrite so need to go in a mature tank, not a new cycling one or it will stress & probably kill them.
you will find that one barb will emerge as 'king' during their fights and may stay king for a day or a week or so before someone evicts him/her by winning the next battle. we had a baby green tb a while ago ( only around 1/2 an inch in size at the time) who terrorised our older nearly 3 inch sized barbs so much they hid all day for a couple of weeks, however the worm turned as they say & eventually the teeny terror was beaten and overthrown and settled right down.
we love our barbs much more interesting to watch than the tv. i had a video clip somewhere of a couple fighting i'll see if i can post a link for you.

http/s30.photobucket.com/albums/c304/mil...crapping013.flv

 

[marthared]

I'm starting a new aquarium, and I had to return the tiger barbs to the store today. They were just too aggressive to the angle fish we had. Got 2 gouramis and a sumo loach now, and all is peaceful.

 

[millym]

yes your right tbs & angels not really a good combination & tbs tend to nip at their long tailing fins....angels seem to like bobbing around in the water whereas tbs are nearly always on the move!

 

[Spacecloud]

In my experiance, yes they are. I had one main aggressive one that also attacked all the other tigers barbs, tetras and long finned fish in the tank. Adding more tigers didn't work as it just attacked those.