Tiger Barbs

[j@mie]

Got 6 of these little guys 2 weeks ago, they make me laugh and i would suggest them to anyone as long as they havent got fish with fins - its so funny watching them, when i go to feed them, they follow my hand to where im gonna put the food, and as soon as it hits the top of the water they are like a group of peranha's lol. the other poor fish have to have the bits spat out by the tigers as they have no chance of getting the fresh food hehe.

Does anyone know any other kind of fish thats like this?

also, has any1 ever had a Neon chase tiger barbs? they are <mod edit> scared HAHA

Watch that j@mie...

 

[yvez9]

I'M getting some for my new 50 gallon tank in a few weeks!
probably 15 or 20

gonna be awesome!!!

 

[chris_1127]

they are great fish! i got 5 regular barbs in with a FW bumblebee goby and 4 ottos, like you say feeding time is a bit mad!! I cant say about neons, but the bumblebee goby chases them off when they get too close for his liking - hilarious as he;s a fraction of their size.
I got 2 more at the weekend for my other tank - the shop had red, and jade green barbs (through feeding albinos colour-enhancing food apparently) so got a couple of red ones to go with the 2 green, 3 albino tigers and 6 black ruby barbs already in there. the black rubys are just as lively, but a bit more nervy than the tigers.

 

[Cavafish]

I've got 5 green and 5 stripey tiger barbs. They always remind me of a gang of teenage kids that are hanging around the streets looking for something to do. They are very inquisitive to say the least!

 

[k2snowboards88]

I have tiger barbs too. They're crazy at feeding time and woudln't ever stop eating if there was an endless suply of food in the tank. I've found an easy way to get food to the other fish though. I drop some of hte food on the surface to distract the barbs and then i drop the rest into the waterfall created by my filter. The food dropped in the watterfall goes throughout the entire tank, where the other fish have a chance to eat too.

They always seem like a pack of wolves often fighting amongst themselves. The seem to get along with my new clown loaches very well. They'll often follow the clown loaches around watching them nonstop. they get theirs sometimes too. Every once in awhile my red fin shark gets in a pissy mood and chasses them all over the tank for a few hours. Its pretty funny, because he calms down after awhile and will leave them alone for a few days.

 

[gwlee7]

My second tank is a tiger tank. I have 12 of them and they are awesome. The only problems I have is trying to introduce a "non-tiger" to the tank. They immediately harrass the addition so badly that I have to take it out. <<<maybe I should get them a red finned shark to play with like the previous poster >>>

I have all regular stripped except for one albino. The albino likes to guard a log tunnel like he's a cichlid or something. What really gets me laughing is when the whole train of the 11 stripped tigers come barrelling through the tunnel and the white one comes out the other side spinning around in circles.

 

[digital_run]

My second tank is a tiger tank. I have 12 of them and they are awesome. The only problems I have is trying to introduce a "non-tiger" to the tank. They immediately harrass the addition so badly that I have to take it out. <<<maybe I should get them a red finned shark to play with like the previous poster >>>

Just my experience but a RTB is not a good choice for tiger barbs. Mine chased/stressed them so much i had to move him to a "tougher" tank. i find the best way to introduce new barbs into an establised pack is to add 2 at a time. This will draw attention away from a specfic fish and make it easier for them to establish themselves.

 

[k2snowboards88]

digital run. how many barbs and how big of a tank did you have?

 

[Lateral Line]

the shop had red, and jade green barbs (through feeding albinos colour-enhancing food apparently)

Be aware that a lot of these brightly coloured fish are in fact dyed/painted, a very cruel procedure. There are line bred green tiger barbs, they are usually very dark coloured with a green sheen on them.

Feeding albinos with special colour enhancer food sounds like a way of hiding the truth. If true, the colour will fade when the special food is withdrawn.

Red and Green tiger barbs are covered in this thread.

 

[gwlee7]

Just my experience but a RTB is not a good choice for tiger barbs. Mine chased/stressed them so much i had to move him to a "tougher" tank. i find the best way to introduce new barbs into an establised pack is to add 2 at a time. This will draw attention away from a specfic fish and make it easier for them to establish themselves.

I have just about resigned myself to the fact that this tank will be tigers only. Any other suggestions for fish that can stay with them will be appreciated. My experience so far is that they focus their aggression on the new fish rather than dispersing it amongst themselves. I love them though because they are very active with each other provided there is no other type of fish in the tank. Maybe I just have "wild bunch"

 

[sylvia]

I had mine with an RTBS and bristlenose which worked out perfectly. I'm also thinking a large keyhole cichlid or two or possibly a pair of adult kribs would be able to handle the aggression of the tigers when you add them to the tank and if you add several new fish at once (if you have room), I'm pretty shure it would work out.

 

[gwlee7]

At 12 tiger barbs in a 30 long I'm pretty close to full as it is but; maybe I could do one or two more fish???

 

[chris_1127]

yes i was told when i got them that the colour would fade if i did not continue to feed the colour enhancing flake. will see what happens - i did ask if they were physically dyed/injected but was assured not

 

[k2snowboards88]

I know there are natural green color morphs as well.

 

[Grouchy]

My 29 gallon tank contains mostly barbs. They are my favorite fish, but they eventually will pester any non-barb in the tank. I've had barbs go after pleco's three times their size, baby barbs try to eat a poor cory catfish that I tried to integrate into the tank; they love to nip neon/glolite tetras, and recently I tried to put a pearl gourami in there temporarily and two of the pests just had to attack it.

Putting tiger barbs in large groups will dissolve some aggression but there will always be one or two rogue brats, usually males that are in the lower rung of the pecking order they maintain.

Still, I enjoy them greatly; how they follow me around when they want fed, how they joust every now and then, how they eat like ravenous tasmanian devils, and how they are a complete pain in the ass to catch if you ever have to fish one out to the hospital tank for one reason or another...