Tiger barb
Tropical fish profilesCommon name: Tiger barb, Barbus Tetrazona, Sumatra barb, Sumatranus
Scientific name: Puntius tetrazona
Family: Cyprinidae
In nature: Sumatra, Indonesia
Mature fish size: 7 cm / 3 inches
Social: active, not recommended to join fish with long fins such as guppies, gouramis, angelfish, and betta splendens since they nip fins
Swimming in the aquarium:all levels
Feeding: eats most foods, dried or live
Breeding: oviparous – female lays eggs that start development after they are fertilised externally by the male
Water temperature: 20-26 C / 68-79 F (but can do well without a heater)
Water pH: 6.5
Water hardness: 5-10 dGH
Description
The name “tiger barb” comes from its 4 tiger-like black vertical stripes on a white-yellow body. The fins of the mature males have red edges and so does the nose. Above the black part of the dorsal fin males have a red line while the dorsal fin of the female is black. Mature females have a bigger belly, and are larger than the males which have a deeper red on their fins and a better contrast of colors.
Behavior
These fish are pretty nervous and aggressive. Since they are schooling fish, it is recommended to keep groups of more than 6 tiger barbs because if you only have a few, they will start nipping the fins of other fish and stress them a lot by following them allover the tank. If there are many barbs, they will usually play on their own, leaving the other species alone. Here’s a pic from one of my tanks, featuring a horde of tiger barbs being friendly with angel fish:
Tiger barbs prefer slightly acidic water but will adapt to a wide range of water parameters. It is important to have a tank with big plants and even ornaments like rocks or wooden roots that create several dark hidden areas, because tiger barbs love to hide and rest after they eat a heavy meal. It’s funny that they often rest in a vertical position, with their tails up and heads down, like aquatic bats! :)
Good mates for these aggressive fish are the Rosy Barbs (Puntius Conchonius).
Varieties
- Green tiger barbs (Moss barb) only have a vertical black stripe on the eye, with the full body being a wonderful green-blue color
- Golden tiger barbs are yellow with 2 white vertical stripes
- Albino tiger barbs are almost totally white
I just love green tiger barbs, they look great in a tank. I don’t know why but friends and family see them blue. Geez, I see them 100% green. Please don’t tell me you see them blue too. Here are two of my GREEN! tiger barbs sharing their secrets… well, they are more green than “tiger” anyway.
Feeding
They are little eating machines, accepting almost any kind of fish food, and they are enter a general frenzy mode at the feeding time, competing for food with fast movements, trying to eat as much as possible before the competition. It is a great show to feed a tank with 20-30 hungry tiger barbs.
Breeding
Before breeding, it is good to feed them live or at least frozen quality food since this will prepare the females to spawn, and you’ll notice their bellies getting bigger. Below are 2 of my mature tiger barb females; notice their rounded big bellies! I can imagine the ton of eggs they have in there. :)
They are oviparous and will eat their eggs or fry if they aren’t taken away after spawning. A grid is required at the bottom of the tank so that the eggs fall below it and escape the parents. Usually more males follow a female. You can select a female with a well rounded belly that males chase and move her to the breeding tank with the mot beautiful and active male. The breeding tank should have acidic water.
Spawning often takes place in the morning. During spawning males will develop a very red nose! (really) LOL To speed up spawning, you can do a partial water change and heat the water a bit more.
The female lays about 200 eggs which the male will fertilize. Remove the parents right after that. The eggs will hatch in about 36 hours, and the fry will swim in 5 days. Fries usually don’t accept dry food from the beginning so you’ll have to prepare baby brine shrimps for their first days of life. Then, they will eat fine powder dry food. The tiger barb is sexual mature at a body length of 3 centimeters (1.2 inches), at approximately seven weeks of age.