Tiger barbs

[jwterry]

What are people's experiences with tiger barbs? i am having a tough time with them... out of nine i have bought only five have survived (bought them three at a time). my water checks out fine... no ammonia, no nitrites, next to no nitrates. also, after feeding they act wierd.... swimming with their mouths down, swimming almost vertically...

 

[redilyn]

mine chill vertical all the time and all are in great health. I hear that it is normal

 

[chrisinha]

i've rescued a tiger barb a couple of months ago. one of his fins was injured for some reason. anyways, he's fine now (alone... ) but he is a weird fish, i think. he also swims (without leaving the same place)with his mouth down, kinda vertically.

 

[LadyB]

I have a total of 11 Barbs (tiger, green, albino) and they all do the vertical thing from time to time. They sleep at a 45 degree angle and are just some of the goofiest fish I've ever had.

 

[ScottoMacD]

It is not unusual for tiger barbs to swim nose down at times.

I remember hearing about it being done as part of their breeding ritual.
Kind of like showing off. I am not 100% sure about the breeding part however. I just remember hearing it once.

If you end up with more males than females deaths will happen. They are a fish that are very tough on their own at the best of times. The barbs at the store do the nose down thing quite offend. Especially when the tank satrts to empty out.

 

[rohnds]

out of nine i have bought only five have survived (bought them three at a time).

Size of tank? Tank mates? Answer to these question could help solve your problem.
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swimming with their mouths down, swimming almost vertically...

This is normal behavior for barbs. All my tiger barbs sleeps on their head.
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(bought them three at a time)

When you introduced the 2nd set of three, was the 1st set of three fully matured? Sometimes adult tiger barbs peck on the younger one which could cause stress, and eventual death.
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Rohn

 

[lquinsey]

My green tiger barbs also swam weird. It's just what they do. They were absolutely my favorite fish. I had them for four years. When I was down to three adults, I introduced four more young ones. The adults totally ignored the young ones, until they all unfortunately sucumbed to ich. I did not have a QT at the time, WHICH I DO NOW. I will be getting more, all at the same time, soon!

 

[dbzguy]

I have 6 and they fight with each other sometimes, then at other times they just hang out and chill with each other. I would consider mine to be highly aggressive fish.

 

[ltldrgn13]

I have a total of 12 barbs and they always act weird... head stands, dancing, acrobaties, etc. I love them because you never know what they will do next... lol.

72 gallon bow-front:
2 (0.75 in) Red-tail Sharks
1 (2 in) Rainbow Shark
3 (1.5 in) Zebra Danios
3 (.75 in) SwordTails
2 (.75 in) Dalmation Mollies
4 (0.5 in) White Clouds
3 (0.5 in) Green Barbs
3 (0.5 in) Tigar Barbs
3 (0.5 in) Gold Barbs
3 (0.5 in) Albino Barbs
2 (0.5 in) freshwater Drawf Puffer fish
1 (4 in) pleco

29 gallon: (becoming a fully planted tank)
2 black snails

2.5 gallon:
1 Betta
1 gold snail

 

[suby7272]

I had two of them - very small when I bought them.
Were doing very well - then suddenly in a gap of just two days they died
They were pretty hard guys - wonder what killed them. I miss those guys