Frightened Tiger Barbs

U

Urban Yakuza

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Apr 25, 2006
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PLEASE HELP

I have recently inherited 3 Tiger barbs, which i put into a week old matured 4' tank 1 recently died so I started to get worried. I have noticed that during the day the remaining 2 do not come out to play with the tank lights on, even at feed time, and yet when I turn out the light they are a hive of activity. Is there something wrong with my lighting or is it just the personality of Tigers.

Cheers
 
You'll probably find its the number of fish you have in the barb school. They need to be in numbers of 6 or more, more being the better! In small numbers they become frightened and will constantly hide and so perversly only come out when the light is off.

You haven't mentioned any tank stats (ammonia, nitrate, nitrites, etc), i'm presuming they are all ok, but i would just double check them just in case.

With a 4 foot tank you could have quite a spectacular display tank for a large tiger barb school. Anywho, hope this helps, keep us posted as to any changes.
 
I agree, i had a school of only 3 tiger barbs and when one grew much larger then the others he killed one and nipped most of the tail fin off the other. Needles to say the bullied one was always hiding. They are in seperate tanks now, and plenty happy. (the little guy even grew his fins back). So i would also recomend having atleast six not only to keep them from hiding, but also to keep them from attacking each other. They also have green and albino variety if you want to have a mix of colored fish in your tank.
 
Ya, I totally agree with what was said. I had two green tiger barbs. One of them were harrasing the other one all the time and the other one didn't have any choice but hiding behind the heater all the time. Whenever I turned the light on, both of them would freak out so badly that I couldn't tolerate their suffering for more than a few seconds. I added two regular and two albino tiger barbs and now they are a happy, healthy, fun-to-watch school even with the lights on. They are even not afraid of the syphon or my hand when I am cleaning the tank.
With the size of tank that you have, I suggest you to get 12 tiger barbs with different colors and you'll see how magnificent they become! And you will have a lot of room to add other fish too. Good luck!
 
Many thanks for all your help, I'm glaad its just a numbers issue as aposed to me doing something wrong to harm them, I have just purchased a test kit to test my water, everything seems fine, just my pH is around 7.5 ish, but I dont really want to use chemicals to reduce the levels, I have put in some live plants to see if that helps....?
 
My pH is around 7.4, all other water tests seem to be around recommended levels. I have purchased another 5 making a group of seven and their fine, even dicing with my much larger tin foils.
 
F1shkeeper said:
I agree, i had a school of only 3 tiger barbs and when one grew much larger then the others he killed one and nipped most of the tail fin off the other. Needles to say the bullied one was always hiding. They are in seperate tanks now, and plenty happy. (the little guy even grew his fins back). So i would also recomend having atleast six not only to keep them from hiding, but also to keep them from attacking each other. They also have green and albino variety if you want to have a mix of colored fish in your tank.
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Anecdotally, I have a single female green barb in my tank and she seems very healthy and even "socializes" with the white clouds in my tank. When she does go postal, she nips at my crayfish' antennae and will drive him into hiding. She will also occasionally peck at my hillstream loach, but the loach can fit into spots where it is easily out of reach (and oddly enough, she only does this when he's on the glass and not when he is anywhere else, bottom, driftwood, etc.).

I had one other green barb in there (a small male I think) when I first started the tank and she killed him. My understanding on barbs is that the numbers diffuse aggression, and make it hard for one fish to become targeted easily.

The single barb I have now (I don't have the heart to get rid of her) is healthy and happy, and very active. I would like to add more, but my tank would be overstocked. So (in my direct experience) for aggressive solitary barbs, keep them with small fast fish they can't catch, large mostly peaceful fish they can't bother (I've also had her in with plecos and an ID shark I took in temporarily, now in a much larger tank), or fish that hide well.

I have heard that barbs do well in schools so my situation is far from ideal. If you are stocking a new tank five barbs should be the minimum number to keep aggression down.
 
hey guys,
ive just got a 2 foot tank and im cycling them with tiger barbs before i put in arowanas.

the problem i have is very much like the thread starters. all my 6 tiger barbs go into hiding when the lights come on. ive even tried dimming the lights with no sucess.

other than adding more fish, which im trying not to do because i dont want too much ammonia, is there anything i can do to have them come out?

thanks guys!
 
Just restocked my 20 with Tigers and Cherry barbs (5 regular Tiger and 3 Green, 5 Cherry).

All happy , swimming around in a school (Tigers) and the Cherrys do what they want; sometimes schooling, sometimes out and about all by themselves.

Lots of plants, so they have a place to hide if wanted.

Neat fish, if a little sensitive (had one die as I was netting from bag after acclimation; one Green Tiger died as the young lady at PetSmart was netting into the collection bin).

Lights or me coming up to the tank to check them out don't seem to bother them; probably since I have a good sized group.
 
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