# tiger barbs



## dan4x4 (12 Aug 2017)

Just want to clear things up here. People online saying that tiger barbs are friendly when you have over 6 of them. This is not true in my experience.

Shrimp just go into hiding all the time and eventually end up eaten, even if you feed the barbs loads.

I even tried with amano's and it didn't work.

I think the barbs are awesome fish, but you can tell when you watch them they are a pack. If whatever you add in there is not part of the pack then the clock is ticking.

Awesome fish in their own right, I think of mine as mini piranha.

Also just to clear something else up I will get massive swimming pool style fish tank if I win the euros and have a bunch of piranha in there ha


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## Parablennius (13 Aug 2017)

I got a group of 20 Puntius pentazona as an alternative to tiger barbs, smaller, less boisterous but with a similar appearance. Not got shrimps but have three pearl gourami , 20 neons  and other small fish with them. They never nip or bother anything and the males colour up beautifully.


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## zozo (13 Aug 2017)

Never have seen a friendly Tiger barb in my live.. They are know to be potential mischievious fin nibblers.. Especialy long finned tank mates should be avoided. Behavioural description are often erroneous and very relative, there are numerous combination possible that potentialy could not work. And yet are not tried or witnessed in the community the author got his information from.

And still generaly it is not accepted that fish have personality and a certain personality can trigger others to mimic that bevavior. In schoaling fish there often is a hierarchy, which can only mean there is a cognitive social bond with dominancy etc. Hence they pack, they are constantly aware of eachother behavior. If you have one getting a tatse of harrasing tank mates, others will follow and mimic to be faster and beter at it. They have food envy and envious matting behavior, heirachical envy. And you will never know what personalities you get if you buy a pack.. 

I experience this also with my Oreichtys barbs, they are generaly only concerned with them selfs, but occasionaly one gets the taste for an old weak shrimp and attacks. If one attacks and the shrimp flees, all others want a peice of the same shrimp they pack up and the poor shrimp is ripped to pieces. Even seen them attack a weak individual of the smaller boraras sp.. If it shows weakness with abnormal swimming behavior, it is isnpected and nibbled, if it flees it triggers an envious pack hunt.

Barbs are schoaling predators..


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## mort (13 Aug 2017)

In defence of the Tiger barb (a childhood favourite) I think a lot of the problems associated with them is down to us. 6 is not a shoal it is simply a few chucked in a tank together, up that number to dozens and you will see far different behaviour. I had 40 or so together and they were one of the best fish I've had the pleasure of keeping.
as to their predatory nature and nippy-ness this is just natural behaviour. You can't expect something to change just because you want it to and I'd argue in species with these kind of hierarchies that they are one of the least naughty. Clown loaches have a similar social structure and their sparing can be far rougher and you'd likely not put shrimp with them simply because you know at some point they'd be on the menu, well barbs eat crustaceans in the wild so it's not a massive surprise they'd do the same in a tank.

For their size they are one of the more troublesome barbs but given an appropriate environment they are also one of the most rewarding.


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## Aqua360 (13 Aug 2017)

Love tiger barbs, their activity, playfulness and annoying behaviour makes them so enjoyable; like any fish though, there are many they get on well with, and those they don't


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## PBM3000 (13 Aug 2017)

I had 15 Amano in with my Tigers a while back.

I still have 15 Amano.

They were initially very aggressive with the Amano for the first two weeks - especially with pregnant females - but this behaviour has subsided to where they now completely ignore them. 

My biggest annoyance with my Tigers is that they stay near the bottom all the time and tear chunks out of my Swords.


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## roadmaster (14 Aug 2017)

Would take the Black Ruby barb's over Tiger barb's all day for aesthetic value.
Just never cared for the tiger barb's  behavior the few times I tried them.
Ruby barb's I have kept were not as aggressive  as the Tiger Barb's toward's other fishes and the ruby barb's kept to themselves.


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## Westyggx (14 Aug 2017)

Second that , i have two tigers and after a week there were no more amano shrimp. I can only guess they ate them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## dan4x4 (15 Aug 2017)

PBM3000 said:


> I had 15 Amano in with my Tigers a while back.
> 
> I still have 15 Amano.
> 
> ...



This is interesting, because the other night I noticed them nibbling at one leaf in particular of a crypt and another night they did the same with a java fern although I haven't observed this behaviour often. 

Thanks for sharing your comment.


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## PBM3000 (15 Aug 2017)

They're little b*****ds. I'm trying to get a bed of Sagittaria down and they're having none of it (or, rather, all of it)!


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## mort (15 Aug 2017)

dan4x4 said:


> This is interesting, because the other night I noticed them nibbling at one leaf in particular of a crypt and another night they did the same with a java fern although I haven't observed this behaviour often.
> 
> Thanks for sharing your comment.



Most barbs eat quite a bit of plant material.


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