Tiger barb questions

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Peter99

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Feb 24, 2004
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I'm posting this for my uncle. He has 6 tiger barbs in his tank. I think 5 of the tiger barbs are pretty fat and they are almost always vertical (face down) in the tank. They are ok when they move around. I'm not sure if they are well fed, it seems that they are out competed by some cichlids. I'm not sure if its some sort of sickness or are they ready to spawn?

Any ideas?

Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are undetectable. The tank is 55 gallons.
 
Spawning behavior, in my experience, does NOT include a vertical, face-down posture. It DOES involve wide-spread fins, a deepening color, (the only way to describe it is "vibrant") and the male and female, or two males, will circle around each other jockeying for position. When the actual spawning occurs, barbs are "egg scatterers" and if you're lucky enough to witness it, the female will tend to swim into a bunch of plants with the male - or maleS, in hot pursuit. Then, a burst of motion and the eggs will settle to the bottom as the parents and any other tank mates scramble to eat as many as possible before they hit the bottom.

If they are swimming OK, eating OK, I have NO idea what the face-down postures means. Maybe they're looking for food on the bottom?

You didn't mention what type of cichlids are in the tank with them, but barbs are pretty tough fish, and generally are the aggressor when it comes right down to that kind of behavior. (If you're talking about African cichlids, that's another story!)

Good luck, and keep us posted, OK?
 
I have no idea what the cichlids are, its yellow and has verticle stripes and pretty aggressive.

5 of the tiger barbs are like that when they are not moving around the tank. Only 1 will stay still without ending up in the verticle position and is not fat like the other 5 barbs. They don't look overfed either, the cichlids generally out-compete them during feeding.
 
Hmm. The yellow with stripes that's real aggressive sounds like an African cichlid, and they can surely hold their own, the are indeed known for their aggressiveness and territoriality.

Sorry I can't help more with the face-down posture of your barbs, though. I've never witnessed anything like that except in fish looking for food on the bottom (and then only for a few minutes at a time) or the head-stander fish which normally swim that way (similar to a pencil fish.)

Good luck to you! Maybe someone else will chime in on their observations of similar behavior.
 
Does it look like the tiger barbs are trying to swim downward to avoid floating up to the surface?
Sometimes these fish overeat, especially flake food, which causes gas to develop inside their digestive systems, and prevents them from swimming in their normal fashion.
Just a guess on my part.

Bill in WI
 
After looking at them, it doesn't look like they are swimming downwards. If I scare them, they seem to swim fine all over the place. They're just facing down when stationary.
 
a couple of mine will do this from time to time. It seems they're just watching the bottom for food because they'll dart down at times and eat off the bottom. I've never had more than 1 or 2 do this. I've heard this is also a symptom of swim bladder problems. My tigers look like an inflated balloon after eating. How often do you feed them? do you watch to see if they get food? mine are very active feeders and don't miss a bite. Do they seem to thin down after a while after the feeding or stay like this all the time? I feed mine once a day and they slim down before I feed them the next day. Kyle
 
i am having the same problem with my tigert barbs....face down behavior, staying in the same spot...if anybody could help, it would be appreciated
 
rrkss said:
Tiger barbs will headstand after a nice big meal which is nothing to be alarmed about.
Click to expand...
Like rrkss said, that's what they do. You need to worry if they *stop* doing headstands ;)

Roan
 
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