What goes good with TIGER BARBS

Not Bala Sharks for sure. They grow to 1 foot+

What kind of fish do you like? Tetras, Plecos, etc...?

ok I have had a school of tiger barbs for 5 years and I will tell you I have loved them dearly the entire time but you may have some trouble with finding the right fish to put in your tank. in my sig I have a list of my tank set up and it took me a while to figure out what works for my particular fish. DO NOT LET THE LFS TELL YOU THEY ARE PEACEFUL COMMUNITY FISH!! they are pretty aggressive. even in a medium school (7) they didn;t lose any aggression they just formed a pack. They have only been tamed by the Colonel ( moonlight gourami ) for now he is the boss of the tank. you can count out angels, most tetras,anything with long fins and most small peaceful mid-tank fish. The also can get up to 3 inches so keep that in mind. They might seem tiny at the store but they grow very quickly when cared for properly.

I have found that 7 is the magic number for my tiger barbs. A bala shark will get WAY to big for your tank and convict cichlids I am not sure about.....

No and No neither of those are good tank mates for tiger barbs. I used to have a tigerbarb school that ranged from 5 to 15 at times in a 55g. I kept an assortment of bottom feeders with them, two or three pictus cats are a good choice if you can get the them barbs will ignore them altogether. I have kept mollies and platies with them. Stay a way from long finned fish like bettas for angel fish and the barbs will more than likely kill them. As long as you have a large school of them you might be able to keep all kinds of fish with them, but shy and or timid fish should be avoided as the barbs will always be on the move and might bother them. I would go with the standard tigerbarbs and stay away from the green ones. Albino's are ok but if you add a school of one type and one of another sometimes they dont school together and "tiger schizoism" as I like to call it might kick in. I would start with a school of 6 to 10, as long as your aquarium is cycled. Since you mentioned convicts I assume that you are interested in cichilids as well I would avoid convicts and they are highly aggresive even when not breeding. If you want to put them together you might try a dwarf cichlid like a ram or some other flavor of apistogramma. I would go with the tiger barb shcool 6-10 danios or white clouds and the pictus cats or maybe some cories. Important. If your barb school ever dips below 5 you might have the barbs start turning and attacking other fish or each other to the point of death. Always keep them in large numbers. When I was younger a friend of mine threw some africans a pacu and two tigerbarbs in a 55 gallon and after about three months all he had left were the two tigerbarbs. They killed every other fish in the tank including the pacu. HTH.

O.K. this is just my experiance with them i do not want to start any arguments or anything but my experiences with tiger barbs were not fun I was very limited as to what I put in the tank it was a 40g and they would chase and kill the fish I put in the only fish that ever lived with them for more than a day were my pleco and my blue gouramis. Then again that was my experiance just make sure u know what you are getting into with barbs
This post is in no offense to any barb keepers like i said it was my experiance
Hope this helps

Definitely keep more than 5 together. I have found that a gourami is scrappy enough to hang with them. I just bought some juli cories and they have been chasing them a bit, but the other older cories in the tank they ignore. I have bleeding heart and pristella tetras in with mine and they ignore them. I've also kept white clouds and zebra danios in with mine with good results. The number one thing is to have enough of them so that they chase each other around. Avoid anything that's slow and long finned. I would also buy the tiger barbs as small as possible and the other fish as big as possible.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Jackie

I have three tiger barbs, they live with 2 plecos, 1 chinese algae eater, 4 black phantom tetras, 3 red rasbora tetras, 2 buenes areies tetras, and 4 blue gourami's. The gouramis are in charge (kind of funny there are 3 males and one female and all the males get along). The Buenes areies tetras are next in line and then come the barbs. The barbs actually school with the tetras and there have been no missing fins, tormented, or killed fish. I am not saying that I have the best combination of fish in my tank, but they all play nice and fill the tank.

I've kept the following with tiger barbs in a large tank and zero probs


-Chinese alge eaters
-Firemouth
-Kribensis
-Keyhole cichlid
-Red tailed black shark
-Giant danios


Mind you the tigerbarbs were nearly 2.5" long. The firemouth was 5" long, 3" long krib and keyhole. The red tailed black shark was about 4" long and the danios were 3-4" long. Nothing too tiny.

Tiger Barbs you got to love them but picking companions for them is always tough. When kept in groups of 7 or more they may focus most of their boisterous beheviour on each other but no guarentees. I have seen the temperament of the group change with the adition or subtraction of one more or less tiger. You get a group of 7 or 8 no probelms, getting along with everything in the tank, you add a couple and they all turn nippy, peer pressure I guess.

I have kept them with a Red Tail Black Shark, Clown Barbs, Pictus Cats, Flying Barbs, Ruby Barbs, Pearl Danios, South American Bumblebee Cats, Kribensis, Melon Barbs, Arulius Barbs, Kissing Gouramis, Spotted Rhapeal Catfish, Albino Corys, and various Plecos. Before I hear from the overstocking police this was obviously not all at the same time or in the same tank. No incidents with any of these species.

I would avoid any long finned, trailing finned or slow fish. I have seen them damage the long threaded fins on Angels and Gouramis, and shred Betas and Guppies. I also seen an unfortunate incident wher the LFS but the ferious looking Dragon Gobies in with Tiger Barbs. The Gobies are actually very peaceful and didn't fare well at all.

Good luck they're great fun just a little frustrating to find tankmates for.