# Tiger barbs



## matthewburk (Sep 22, 2005)

Do Tiger barbs uproot or eat plants? These are my all time favorite fish and I would love to put them in a planted tank.


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## Fishingdood (Feb 9, 2005)

they will Nip at plants but not up root


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

I have a pack of tiger barbs in my planted 30-gallon. They don't bother seem to bother the plants and contrast wonderfully against them. They do like to bother some of my other fish though. They're ballsy little critters when you put a bunch of them together.


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## matthewburk (Sep 22, 2005)

Cheeseybacon said:


> I have a pack of tiger barbs in my planted 30-gallon. They don't bother seem to bother the plants and contrast wonderfully against them. They do like to bother some of my other fish though. They're ballsy little critters when you put a bunch of them together.


Yes they are, I love them. Especially at feeding time


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## Cheeseybacon (Feb 13, 2005)

matthewburk said:


> Yes they are, I love them. Especially at feeding time


Try throwing in a small live earthworm sometime. My tigers go absolutely ape**** over them. They tear them to peices like a pack of piranas. :tongue:


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## matthewburk (Sep 22, 2005)

Cheeseybacon said:


> Try throwing in a small live earthworm sometime. My tigers go absolutely ape**** over them. They tear them to peices like a pack of piranas. :tongue:


Thanks, ill try it.


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## all4funwfish (Jan 18, 2004)

I have a tank of pirahna at my house, and they dont go ape**** over anything...they are so timid and shy its stupid. tiger barbs are a lot more entertaining than my roommates pirahna.


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## matthewburk (Sep 22, 2005)

all4funwfish said:


> I have a tank of pirahna at my house, and they dont go ape**** over anything...they are so timid and shy its stupid. tiger barbs are a lot more entertaining than my roommates pirahna.


LOL  That made me laugh for some reason. When I describe tiger barbs in a frenzy to people I say its like pirahna's. Your not the first person I have seen saying that pirahna's don't really frenzy much.


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## rhoymand (Oct 18, 2005)

when I stick my arm in the tank to do some aquascaping my group of tiger barbs always nip me. its nice to have some fish that arent that shy.


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## matthewburk (Sep 22, 2005)

Yea, they nip me too, I like it. My black mollies do the same. I also love how the Tiger barbs will eat bloodworms right out of my hand.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

Tiger barbs are *great* for planted tanks because, in their eternal quest for food, or out of sheer curiosity, they help keep plants (and driftwood) clean. 

Debris, snails or discolored spots on leaves or wood are pecked at. My plants and driftwood used to be crawling with Malaysian Trumpet snails; the Tiger Barbs do a great job of knocking them off.  

They contrast very nicely against green plants, and are the best schooling fish I have ever had -- a perfect centerpiece fish. I have 8 of them now, and would love to add more, but 9 or 10 appears to be the critical point where they become a super-aggressive "wolfpack" and terrorize other fish. (Right now, they are as harmless as neons.)  

I previously had Rummynose and Red Phantom tetras, both of which were beautiful, and were good schoolers, but they were very easily spooked and spent a lot of time hiding. Tiger Barbs are not the least bit shy and spend all of their time in plain view, usually in a tight group, and most often in the dead center of the tank, which is where I want them to be.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

EricSilver said:


> Tiger barbs are *great* for planted tanks because, in their eternal quest for food, or out of sheer curiosity, they help keep plants (and driftwood) clean.
> 
> Debris, snails or discolored spots on leaves or wood are pecked at. My plants and driftwood used to be crawling with Malaysian Trumpet snails; the Tiger Barbs do a great job of knocking them off.


*Update:* Not only have the Tiger Barbs knocked the snails off the plants and wood, they have literally driven them back below the substrate (where they used to stay before the population exploded). 

I have black Tahitian Moon Sand which is lovely. However, the backs of a hundred or so snails, too lazy to go completely underground, spoils the appearance -- much like popcorn strewn about a newly cleaned carpet. 

Because the Tiger Barbs peck at anything that moves, or which contrasts with its background, they have given the MTS a hard time. Now the snails only come up when it is dark, or just before midnight, whichever occurs first. 

I also noticed they nip the larger cories only when they are hungry, and never hard enough to do any fin damage. In fact, I have observed only one or two of the barbs actually doing that, and then only to move the cory out of the area he was hunting for food in.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

I'm really becoming a big Tiger Barb fan.  Add "interactive" to my list of what I like about them. 

They do indeed notice what goes on outside the tank and investigate, rather than flee. They are already eating bloodworms from my hand, will also peck at the little hairs on my hand, and are the only fish I know of that will swim into a moving net (to get food).


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## matthewburk (Sep 22, 2005)

Exactly the reasons I love them Eric. In fact I setting up a 180 for a big school of em :thumbsup:


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

I was thinking about setting up a 120g tank for a big school of them, but space issues will probably cut that down to a 90. Should still be a lot of room for a good sized school, though.


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## soniacbt (Jul 15, 2005)

I've always had the impression the Tiger barbs are aggresive fish and may not do well in a community tank. Will they be OK with cardinals and rummy noses?. Will they eat algae (BBA). I read that rosy barbs eat algae......


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

A 180, 120 or 90 gallon full of Tiger Barbs and plants would look great. :thumbsup:


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

Tiger barbs are great, I put six in a 20 gallon and they systematically hunted down every snail in the tank within minutes of their introduction. 

I would love to have a large tank with just tiger barbs and clown loaches.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

It was only a matter of time. Tiger Barbs + Ghost Shrimp do not mix. 

This past Sunday I bought 10 ghost shrimp. Of course, the Tiger Barbs harrassed them and today I saw them cleaning out two corpses. 

Unless these fish are continuously fed, they will be a menace to all but the most aggressive tank inhabitants. But I still love them!  A nippy Tiger Barb is a hungry Tiger Barb, and when they are not hungry they do not bother anyone. 

Because I have waited so long, and they now consider the entire tank their turf, it will be difficult to add more fish. I don't think Blue Rams or an Apistogramma will hold their own, but one or two African cichlids should be OK. 

A Jewel or Firemouth cichlid might be too big, and I'd get a pair of Convicts in a heartbeat if I knew they would not dig up the tank.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

Well, a little rearranging and the 120 is back on track. in fact I pick it up this Saturday. 

So now I have to start deciding on tank mates suitable for a school of 30-40Tiger Barbs. I'm planning on having a lot of moss so SAEs are out. But maybe five or six Yoyo Loaches. And some Hillstream Loaches (Brokenband if I can find them). Trying to keep with the Asian theme here, but will probably end up with a SA cleaning crew (Otos, Corys). 

Does anyone know if Redtail Sharks get aggressive around Loaches?


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## newshound (May 9, 2005)

bharada said:


> Does anyone know if Redtail Sharks get aggressive around Loaches?


I have seen a RTS with some of the most aggressive loaches with no problems.
Please note that i have had no luck having cories with semi-peaceful loaches. 
I have had SAE with java moss and really had no real issues. Java Moss grows like crazy.


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## Mustang5L5 (Feb 1, 2004)

Tiger Barbs are a fun little fish. I have a school of about 10 of them in my 40 gal. They are playful and fun to watch. I love when you see two of them "sparring" against each other headbutting one another all over the tank. 

They leave my plants alone. I have never seen a single one nip at a plant ever.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

*More Tiger barb Trivia:*

More discoveries: 

Although some books and online resources deny it, Tiger Barbs do have wispy, barely noticeable barbels on the sides of their mouths.

Tiger Barbs also qualify as "earth eaters." When hunting for food on the bottom, they suck up and spit out sand. 

Again, they are the perfect schoolers. When one or more strays, it is never for more than a few minutes.


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## Not Mister Green (Feb 15, 2005)

*yes, Tiger Barbs are wonderful, active, beautiful fish...*

one of my 29G houses:

~4 standard Tiger Barbs
~3 albino Tiger Barbs
~female/male pair fo Rosy Barbs
~female/male pair of Checkered Barbs
~female/male pair of Cherry Barbs
~one 5" Ruby Shark, aka, red fin shark
~4 peppered Cory Cats

Everyone does fine in the same tank but it is a "tough hood" The Ruby Shark TRIES to keep everyone in line and helps to dissapate agression among the barbs. That male checkered Barb is a tough little fish and will act agressively toward all the other barbs even though they may be larger than him. 

I've found that barbs love structure (driftwood, plants, rocks) and it really calms them down. Just a few barbs Tiger Barbs in a bare tank is a bad idea, IMO. Some say Tiger Barbs don't follow normal stocking rules ~ the more the merrier! (to some extent obviously)

IME, Barbs will do damage to fine leaved plants like dwarf hairgrass, water sprite and dwarf sags. Larger leaf plants incur little damage from barbs.

I finally discovered how to tell the difference between the male and female Tiger Barbs. The Female's tails will have no orange coloration and they are more plump compared to the males. 

Its an open top tank and, so far, no fish have jumped out (and some fish have been in the tank for almost a year). I knew a guy with a small tank full of Tiger Barbs that were constantly trying to jump out of the tank, but he finally discovered it was due to poor water quality. 

Does anyone keep green tiger barbs? aren't there black ones to?

happy fishkeeping! (and plants to!, ),
MG


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## TAF CAF (Jan 12, 2006)

matthewburk said:


> Yea, they nip me too, I like it. My black mollies do the same. I also love how the Tiger barbs will eat bloodworms right out of my hand.


Gulp... my angels nip me, but I usually end up with a ripped up bloody arm from some of their nips!
:icon_conf


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## yoink (Apr 21, 2005)

bharada said:


> Does anyone know if Redtail Sharks get aggressive around Loaches?


I had a rainbow shark in with some tiger barbs and he absolutly hated them. I thought it was the tiger barbs that were tearing each other up, until I saw the rainbow shark swim straight into the side of a couple of them. Looked like he was trying to pin them against the glass. I took them out and replaced them with small tetras and everyone is happy. Not sure if the redtail would be the same, but I think they act very similar. Good luck.


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## Mustang5L5 (Feb 1, 2004)

Mister Green said:


> Does anyone keep green tiger barbs? aren't there black ones to?



I have a green barb in my tank. The rest are normal tiger barbs. For some reason the LFS priced them at 3X the cost of a normal tiger barb so i only bought 1. It schools fine with the other barbs. 

It is actually the barb with the most personality in my tank. If i stick my hand in to clean the tank or prune some leaves, all the other fish scatter except this one barb. He'll come up and start nipping my hand. There have been times i have cupped my hand around him partially while in the tank and he stayed swimming inside my hand nipping at my palm. 

A few times while planting i've had to gently nudge him away when he was too interested in what I was going and wouldn't stop nipping. 

I've been trying to take some pics of this but it's hard with one hand in the tank. 

I've had him in my tank for 2 years. No other fish has ever been such a "pet" as this one.


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## Keck (Jan 18, 2006)

I have had Tiger Barbs in just about every fresh tank I have owned. Previously, I have had no problems with them harassing anything. In fact, I have had issues with other fish harassing the barbs. However, these new 6 are different. 

I bought 3 Emerald Corey’s and they pick on them a lot. They started pecking at them through the bag as soon as I put it in. Luckily, the Corey’s only seem annoyed (rather than showing signs of stress) and at times will chase the barbs away when they have had enough. 

Being my first true planted tank, I thought it was because of the dense plant growth. Then it occurred to me that this is a much smaller tank than what I had before (29 gal) and that’s probably the reason.


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## Ken (Jul 27, 2003)

I had 5 Green Tigers in my 10G. Really great little fish. My Emerald Cory would actually swim with the pack and the Barbs didn't seem to mind. I never saw them pick on any of my other fish (a Spotted Raphael and 3 Otos) but they did harass any ghost shrimp I put in there. 

My cousin just introduced 10 Tigers to his established (and mostly unplanted) 55G. His Red Tail Shark (5") is none too happy as the Barbs won't leave him alone. The 5" Striped Leperinus(?) stays to himself unless the RTS gets too excited, then he'll go after the RTS. However, my cousin is now a true Tiger Barb fan, noting that his tank suddenly seems alive.


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## toofazt (Jun 18, 2005)

*Tiger Barbs*

I had 10 Regular, 10 Albino, and 10 Green in my 150G tank until my puffer decided to eat 16 of them:icon_cry: So I gave the rest to the LFS. They were great looking fish. They were all full grown and schooled great. The only difference between the colors that I noticed were the Albino barbs seemed 'slow'... They were the first to get eaten and acted like they didn't know what was going on in the tank, lol. The barbs never messed with any of the plants in there, although there were only Jungle Vals and Anacharis... I would say get a large school if you have the space and no long finned fish or shrimp:thumbsup:


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## Keck (Jan 18, 2006)

What type of puffer did you have that could not only catch but would eat barbs?

Ive kept a few puffers before in a community tank for over a year until I moved them to a brackish system when they got larger. They killed a couple of slow fish (maimed more than eaten), but didn’t have a chance in catching anything like a barb. Would just like to know in case I get puffer curious again.

As far as ghost shrimp, where I come from they = food in almost any tank with fish.


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

I never had, or liked Tiger barbs in the past mostly due to their reputation.
Well, this past September I went to a 2-year old's birthday party with a Nemo theme. The party favors.... baby tiger barbs in a gold fish bowl. I hadn't had my tank set-up yet, so when we got home I dug out the 5 gallon, a sponge, and a power head. When I finally set up the 55, at my wife's insistence, I ended up picking up more tiger barbs to keep the original company. I have to say that they are really 1 of my favorites. They school nicely, and will swim right up to you without hiding. 

When I upgrade, I will be expanding their school.


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

This is where my Ghost Shrimp live. 
(Those two dark areas on ground level are 
deep caverns into the driftwood.) 
I started with ten shrimp, now I have one. 










This is what happens when the Tiger Barbs are hungy 
and a Ghost Shirmp is careless: 










Poor little fella! :icon_cry:


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## toofazt (Jun 18, 2005)

Keck said:


> What type of puffer did you have that could not only catch but would eat barbs?
> 
> Ive kept a few puffers before in a community tank for over a year until I moved them to a brackish system when they got larger. They killed a couple of slow fish (maimed more than eaten), but didn’t have a chance in catching anything like a barb. Would just like to know in case I get puffer curious again.
> 
> As far as ghost shrimp, where I come from they = food in almost any tank with fish.


I have a Fahaka puffer. Here is a pic of him Take a look at my 150G in my sig for more info/pics...


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

I purchased a pair of Flame/Von Rio tetras from my local Petco, because the fish had a very nice metallic gold coloring. I only have two because these fish are extremely territorial and will charge at other fish like rhinos. 

As expected, they each staked out an area of the tank – one over a large piece of java fern-covered driftwood and the other over a large Crypt. Today the driftwood fish began charging at individual Tiger Barbs that entered his space. The Barbs were startled and would run, except for the three dominant ones. 

I was concerned that this Flame Tetra, only half the size of the Tiger Barbs, would make wimps out of them. But the Barbs came up with a simple and clever strategy: Ignore the Tetra. All 8 would swim together into the aggressive Tetra’s territory as if he was not there. By the end of the day, the demoralized Tetra apparently lost his aggression and individual Tiger Barbs can enter his space without being attacked. Now he fights with his companion Tetra (quite viciously I should add) and has started chasing the Corys when they come near him.


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## fusQer (Jan 23, 2006)

newshound said:


> I have seen a RTS with some of the most aggressive loaches with no problems.
> Please note that i have had no luck having cories with semi-peaceful loaches.
> I have had SAE with java moss and really had no real issues. Java Moss grows like crazy.



i have 1 RTBS with 7 loaches and no problems. the sharks only are aggressive around other shark species, ie SAE's, flying fox, etc. i have 6 SAE's, 1 FF, and 1 RTBS. the RTBS dominates them all


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## mr.gaboozlebag (Feb 22, 2006)

I have never heard of plant eating tiger barbs, but if you want t see the pirhana geens in th barbs, then put them with an angelfish.:icon_evil


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

Trouble brewing....


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## Keck (Jan 18, 2006)

Mine have surprisingly calmed down. I added 3 Cardinals and they school with the Barbs. Whereever you see my six Barbs, you will see 3 Cardinals mixed in with them. They don’t bother the Corys anymore either.

I’m not sure, but they seemed to stop after I added a pair of Dwarf Groumies. Though the are not aggressive to other tank mates, they don’t put up with much and are hard on each other.

I was toying with adding a Beta, but I figured that would really be pushing my luck.


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