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Tiger barbs a quick look

Ever wondered having Tigers at your home? Nope! Just kidding...

In this post, we are going to have a quick look about the tiger barbs

To begin with, tiger barbs are freshwater fish that grow maximum up to 3 inches and can live somewhere between 5-10 years. These are very fun and colorful types of fish and are perfect for your planted tank. Overall these fish are grey and have black stripes across the body. A healthy tiger barb has a brighter color and has red fins.


Behaviors

Generally, these can be a bit aggressive type of fish, so there is a possibility that they will rip the fins from other slower fish. So, it is not recommended to keep them in a community tank. Although if you are thinking to keep them in a community tank, provide many Tiger barbs in the tank. As they feel better when they are around in the same species of fish as they are.

But overall these are very playful fish species that will be very fun to watch.


Diet

Tiger Barbs are omnivorous fish species. You can feed them with almost anything. It is recommended to give them fish flakes, fish food with veggies. You can also feed them with pre-packaged food for fish.

If you want to treat them sometimes you can feed them with frozen and dried foods or live foods, such as Daphnia, Brine Shrimp, and Bloodworms. These foods will also boost up the protein consumption of Tiger Barb.


Breeding

Breeding the Tiger Barb can have some difficulties. But if you have decided to breed them you need to take the following actions. Tiger barb love to eat their eggs, so to avoid that the tank should be filled with plants and should have a marbled bottom where the eggs will get lost and they won’t be able to eat the eggs.

To prepare them for breeding, you can take the male fish to keep them in a different aquarium for up to 5 days. Female Tiger barbs need to be kept in a large aquarium with a marble bottom. The temperature of the water in the tank should be 80F degrees. And you need to feed the female fish with a protein full food and you need to change the 30% of tank water every day.

When you notice a pregnant female fish, you can bring them back to the breeding tank to keep them with the males. The Pregnant female fish have larger and rounder belly, while their fins will be darker.

Tiger Barbs lay around a hundred eggs, during this process the males follow the eggs to fertilize them all. This is when you should try to hide the eggs from adults.

The fry will grow after a week and will begin to swim after 5 days of hatching. It is recommended to feed them with all-liquid food or with mashed brine shrimp.


Tank Mates

As mentioned above Tiger Barbs aren’t the best fish species to keep in a community tank. But if you will have at least 5-6 Tiger Barbs in one tank they will not be as aggressive as when kept alone in a community tank.


It is not recommended to keep them with fish with long fins or that are very slow as they will rip their fins off.

You can keep them with fast fish species, such as Danios, Tetras, and Platys. The majority of Catfish species can be kept with these fish as well.

Tank requirements for the Tiger Barb

As these are smaller species of fish, you do not need large tanks to keep a group of Tiger barbs.  However, these are very active fish, who love to swim fast, so they need a space for that. The minimum tank size should be 30 gallons for Tiger barbs.

The aquarium for these fish should be heavily planted with a lot of rocks, driftwood, and ornaments to swim in and out of. Heavily planted aquariums, as mentioned earlier will provide plenty of space for them to breed successfully.

The tank temperature of the tank should be between 75 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit (23 – 27 Celcius) and the hardness level of water should be up to 10 dGH and a pH of between 6 and 7.


Common Diseases

Tiger Barbs do not have any specific disease but they can have more usual diseases, for instance, cottonmouth and ich.

The best way to avoid these diseases is to always keep ideal water in the tank, this should be enough to keep your Tiger Barbs healthy. Also, remember that filtration is again one of the main factors to have healthy fish in the tank.


Overall specifications

  • Family: Cyprinidae
  • Range: Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo
  • Size: Up to 3 inches
  • The temperament of Tiger barb: Semi-aggressive
  • Diet of Tiger barb: Omnivore
  • Tank Set-up: Freshwater: Rocks, plants, driftwood
  • Tank Conditions: 74-79°F; pH 6.0-7.0; dH 4-10
  • Minimum Tank Size: 30 gallons
  • Light level: Low
  • Care Level: Easy
  • Breading of Tiger barb: Egg Layer

In conclusion

So, what do you think? Are Tiger Barbs right for you? Hopefully, you got all the information you needed about these fish. Just remember to follow all the requirements and they will be a great addition to every tank. Don’t forget to keep them in large groups. If you are looking for playful, fun and fast-moving fish that will always keep the tank in action, then Tiger Barb will be perfect for you. And remember that the only way to keep them happy and healthy is to provide them with the best quality water with good filtration.

 


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