Hi all. How would you design an optimal habitat for tiger barbs? I'm wondering about tank size, substrate, decor and lighting schedule and would like to include live plants and compatible tank mates. Thanks for any ideas!
Tiger Barb habitat ideas?
- Thread starter Eviebella
- Start date
My (personal) ideal tiger barb tank would be a 33 gallon long. It's the length of a 55 gallon but only about 12 inches tall. Basically if you laid 3 ten gallon tanks end to end, you would have a 33 gallon long. This could easily handle a school of 11 tiger barbs and a couple of BN plecos. You could even do like six of the wild type (striped) and five of the green morph or something like that. The 48" length is great for how active they are. The height of the tank makes lighting easy for planting as you don't need high powered lights to get through a lot of depth of water. You'd have a lot of options of plants in something like this.
If you want other tank mates, I'd recommend a 55 gallon minimum. A good size school of 11+ tiger barbs. A good size school of another medium tetra or barb that are hardy and active, something like serpaes or silver tip tetras. You can easily do a school of cory cats as well. If you get a good size school of tiger barbs they aren't super nippy with other fish. You could even add a center piece fish like a single medium sized SA cichlid (convict, keyhole, salvini, severum, etc). As for plants in something like that it really depends on how complicated you want to go. I always recommend Anubias, Cryptocoryne, Java ferns, and moss balls. They're easy to grow, hardy, and most species don't require anything too specialized.
If you want other tank mates, I'd recommend a 55 gallon minimum. A good size school of 11+ tiger barbs. A good size school of another medium tetra or barb that are hardy and active, something like serpaes or silver tip tetras. You can easily do a school of cory cats as well. If you get a good size school of tiger barbs they aren't super nippy with other fish. You could even add a center piece fish like a single medium sized SA cichlid (convict, keyhole, salvini, severum, etc). As for plants in something like that it really depends on how complicated you want to go. I always recommend Anubias, Cryptocoryne, Java ferns, and moss balls. They're easy to grow, hardy, and most species don't require anything too specialized.
Depending on what species of sword plant you have, some can get huge. Anubias and java/Christmas moss are super easy to grow, but can be slow growers. Crypts are pretty easy once they get settled in, but can do the "crypt melt" thing right after they are added. I have a bunch of marimo balls in my planted 29g, and it seems that my BNs have taken to playing with them.
Tiger Barbs like a lot of swimming room, so the longer the tank the better. As for plants, IMO, Vals would be the best. Fast growing, can handle low or high light, and do not take up too much room.
Tiger barbs are awesome schooling fish. I have three tanks and a school of them in each tank. They make great dither fish as well. All of my tanks are stocked with driftwood and theres never a dull moment watching them swim through the wood. Any semi aggressive barb will make excellent tank mate. Belive it or not i have a school of them with my african cichlids yellow labs for over a year now and they're doing great.
Ok guys...this may be hard to believe, my tiger barb GANG...Destroyed the fins on three of my large 4-5" electric blue acaras uuugh! They gotta go
