Tiger barb question.

[Jgeezer1986]

I bought two Tiger Barbs for my community tank. I have seen that depending on what fish they are with , really has an effect on their temperament. Seeing how i have my 20gal backup still set up , i figured i could try them in my 55gal community tank. I also bought two mollies and a hand full of neons. As i sit here and watch them, the barbs tend to stay to them selves, but every once in a while , go break up the group of neons and back to each other. When they start chasing the neons, the dalmatian molly rips into the the barbs , chasing them off and everything settles down.

This seems a weird behavior from the mollies , and i know it was probably not the smartest thing to do , adding two barbs to a community tank. Anyone seen this behavior before?

 

[Chriznat20]

Ive always had problems with tiger barbs and docile fish in my tanks. The last tiger barb I had, had a real bad attitude and would ruin everybodys fun in the tank. I eventually brought the 2 barbs I had back to my LFS and exchanged them for neon tetras.

 

[fishboy444]

Tiger barbs need to be kept in shoals of 5-6.

 

[Jgeezer1986]

I thought i might update on my new tank addition of the barbs. After the first hour, the barbs are just something really neat to watch. All my worries are seemingly being put to bay. They have not even so much as chased anything again. They Still basically stay to their own, but the neons are no longer phased by them, and the group of five just swim around with in an inch of the barbs sometime , and everything is great.

The only thing i see that is going to take some work on my part is feeding time. The barbs are QUICK! They Seem to intimidate all of the fish with their darting around after food. I found out , as long as i spread the food out over the distance of the tank, they will stay in one spot to feed and everyone else will have ample room to get what they want.

I do see the behaviors that you are all talking about. Seems as though the molly keeps them at bay. She and the other molly both hang real closely with the group of swords, and the neons are never usually that far away. The Barbs are everywhere , but leave everyone alone. But rest assure, if the barbs get out of line , the dalmatian molly will put them in line!

I do plan on adding another 4 barbs. Not only from the post on here , but that lead me to read further into it. Having one , two or three will tend to bring out their nipping side, so to avoid it , i will be getting 4 more shortly...


THANKS EVERYONE!

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Adding more barbs will also keep the stress down for the two existing barbs. It's a great idea because they love to be in groups of 5-6.

 

[spyyro]

I always kept at least 6 tiger barbs in my tank as well.

 

[fg2ner]

my tin foil barbs ate all my neons... i came down turn the lights on nd i c a neon tale sticking out of the barbs mouth lol

 

[WhiteDevil]

6 barb minimum, that creates a pecking order and 99% of the aggression will be barb on barb. I got 7 tiger barbs in with 5 angels 3 being juves and long fin fish and there are ZERO issues in the tank with them.