Tiger barbs - mix and match?

[Lotocus]

I currently have 3 normal Tiger Barbs. We want to increase their school soon (2 have died off in the 10 months since we originally got them). Do the different varieties of Tiger Barbs (regular, green, albino, and even the glo) school together? Or would they all be happier if they were all the same variation? Thanks for your opinions.

[Fishanatic]

Yes, they should school together. Try getting a school of at least 6 though, they might be happier.

[aqua_holic]

In my experience they do best in a large group - more than 10.

Yes they should all school together....however, tiger barbs are known to kill off fish from their school. I would be curious how that all plays out.

My personal opinion is that mixing phenotypes is ugly. I think a big group of the same type looks WAY better than a mixed school.

[Lotocus]

Yeah. Looking at getting 6-7 more in the next few weeks. My wife wants "color" so I asked about the glo fish version.

Aqua-holic, good point on the aesthetics of mixing. I'll have to give that some thought.


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[Luananeko]

Agreed on the point that mixing/matching is more chaotic looking. Mixing Glo types generally seems to look ok in the setting of a Glo tank, but mixed natural types seems more jarring to me for some reason.

Behaviorally, the fish don't seem to notice color morph differences (albino, green, glo, tiger) as long as they're still the same species.