Weird Tiger Barb behaviour

[minx]

I have 7 Tiger Barbs and have noticed some strange behaviour of an evening. They regularly chase each other round the tank, when this happens, their fins become really erect and red.

There's one Barb in particular (I'm pretty sure it's the same one each time) which seems to turn almost completely black - the orange parts go really really dark. It seems to be this guy which does most of the chasing.

Does anyone know why he turns this colour? Another weird thing I noticed was one of the smaller chaps nosing into the side of one of the larger guys. It didn't look particularly agressive, just a bit strange.

Oh, one last thing - anyone heard of them eating algae? I've got some hair algae on some of my tank decorations & I've caught them ripping bits off and eating it!

 

[loganj]

My T barbs do pretty much the same thing. They color up when they are chasing each other around the tank. I have noticed the largest one gets darker at times, but I really don't know why. IME, tiger barbs will happily eat anything that they can get in their mouths. Mine eat everything from flake to crushed peas. I think yours are displaying normal behavior though and I wouldn't worry about them. I also have a large rainbow in there who chases the barbs around when it suits him. His color brightens up a lot when this is going on.
Logan J

 

[Guest]

Oh, one last thing - anyone heard of them eating algae? I've got some hair algae on some of my tank decorations & I've caught them ripping bits off and eating it!

From time to time, I've caught my cherry barbs, angels, and even dannios nibbling on the algae. Shoot, my one angel loves the stuff, eats a lot!

In my opinion, any fish that wants a bit of algae, help yourselves!