Tiger Barb Stats
Minimum Tank Size: 20 Gallons
Care Level: Moderately Difficult
Water Conditions: 6.0-8.0 and Moderately Soft to Moderately Hard
Temperature: 22–27 °C (71.5–80.5 °F)
Maximum Size: 1.5 inches (4cm)
The Tiger Barb (Puntius tetrazona), also known as the Sumatra Barb, is a small minnow native to Sumatra, Borneo, Thailand and parts of Malaysia. It has also been reported in numerous other areas of Southeast Asia, but at this time it hasn’t been confirmed outside of its native range.
In the wild, they are mainly found in the shallows of slow flowing streams, but can also be found in small bodies of water and swamp lakes. Because of their wide array of habitats, they are highly adaptable to different types of water in the home aquarium, and can adapt quite readily to harder water.
The tiger barb stays relatively small in the home aquarium, with adults growing to a maximum of 3 inches (7.5 cm), with 2 inches (5cm) being more common. On average they will live for 5-6 years if well cared for, and are generally a very hardy fish.
Housing
The first thing that you should know about Tiger barbs is that they are mean fish. Not the usual “nip an occasional fin” mean, but more the “will take your fishes lunch money, and yours too if you’re not careful” type of mean.
While that is a bit of exaggeration, it is incredibly important for someone buying these fish to realize that they are not a good community fish. In the past, many stores would sell these stunning fish to people hoping to put them in a community fish tank, and it would result in a disaster. This is becoming less common, as most stores are labeling tiger barbs as non-community fish, but you still hear stories about tiger barbs nipping fish to pieces in community fish tanks.
The best option for tiger barbs, is to house them in a species only fish tank. The aquarium should be at least 20 gallons, with the usual tank size rule applying – the bigger the tank is to start with, the better the fish will do over the long run. Larger tanks have more stable water parameters, and are actually far easier to care for than smaller ones.
If you would still like to take a chance with tiger barbs in a community thank, the best choices for tank mates are bottom dwelling fish that will generally escape their notice. This includes several species of catfish (not corydoras though), plecos, and clown loaches. Keep in mind that even these species can suffer at the hands of tiger barbs, and may have to be moved if they suffer excessive nipping.
There have also been some aquarists who have reported success with smaller cichlids, like convicts cichlids and Bolivian rams. But just remember, being placed with cichlids can end up being fatal to the tiger barbs, especially if the convicts start mating or become overly aggressive.
When it comes to choosing a filter for tiger barbs, the best choice is usually a hang-on-back filter. These will keep the water crystal clear, and maintain excellent water quality, but you should be careful not to over filter the aquarium. Tiger barbs prefer slow moving water, and any hang-on-back filter should either have reduced flow, or should not exceed the recommended tank size listed on the filter.
I would strongly recommend choosing an Aquaclear Power Filter
Feeding
Tiger barbs are omnivores in the wild, and eat small crustaceans, insects, algae and plant matter. Because of this, they will eat nearly anything offered to them in the home aquarium, and their diet should be made up of a high quality flake food. They should also occasionally be offered live food, frozen foods and vegetables. One of the best prepared foods on the market, is Hikari Micro Wafers
Live food is usually superior to frozen foods, and has the added benefit of triggering the “hunting” response in fish. But when you can’t obtain live foods, there are many frozen foods that you can feed to tiger barbs. Some of their favorites are frozen bloodworms, blackworms, daphina, and brine shrimp.
Tiger barbs should also occasionally be fed vegetables, with blanched zucchini medallions and shelled peas being their favorites. If you don’t have the patience to prepare vegetables for your fish every few days, these can be replaced with spirulina pellets. A word of warning – many of the so-called spirulina pellets sold in fish stores have little, if any spirulina in them. Always read the label to make sure that the first ingredient is spirulina, and not something like fish meal.
Breeding
The tiger barb is relatively easy to breed, and the only requirements are ensuring there is enough space for their courting rituals, and that live plants are provided (having a male and female helps too). It is also important to use a sponge filter in the aquarium, as a hang-on-back filter will suck numberless fry up to rather unpleasant deaths.
If you are planning to breed tiger barbs, the first thing that you have to do is ensure that you at least 6-7 of the fish. They should be placed in at least a 20 gallon long tank, with a 29 gallon being preferable. The tank should be well planted with live plants, with some aquarists stating that bunches of Cabomba work best.
Once you are ready to start breeding, the males should be removed from the tank. The males can be identified by their larger size, and the females will have more plump bodies. After a few days, they can be reintroduced to the main tank, which will usually trigger spawning.
During spawning, the males will chase the female until they begin to release the eggs. As the females release the eggs, the males will release their sperm into the egg stream. After the spawning is done, both the males and the females should be removed from the tank, as they will quite happily munch on the eggs that the females just laid.
If you want to increase the number of eggs that survive, you can use a similar trick to what is used during zebra danio breeding. The bottom of the breeding tank can be lined with river rocks, or marbles, which allows most of the eggs to falling through the spaces, becoming unreachable by the hungry parents.
After the eggs have hatched, the fry will cling to plants or the side of the aquarium for up to five days. They will then become free swimming, and can be feed with baby brine shrimp or commercially available fry food. As they grow, they can also be feed with finely ground fish food flakes.
It’s funny I have 2 tiger barbs to start my aqurium and still in there and they are not aggressive check me out on youtube to see antsgotpets agp.
You definitely have a nice tank, and it’s great that you aren’t having problems with tiger barb aggression. It really helps that they seem to be with other semi-aggressive fish, but if you like them, you should try and add more to help reduce stress as space opens up in your aquarium.
And be careful with the dinosaur bichirs – they will eat anything that will fit into their mouths. Don’t be surprised if your smaller fish start to disappear as they grow.
I had two of them. Today from morning to afternoon they were both spawning I think. But now the female is dead
It sounds like it might have been aggression between them. When they’re kept in small groups, they often fight incessantly.
have a have a safe what is a good size tan that is a good size tank
A few years ago I had a community tank with Tiger Barbs and it was fine. In the tank was a Blue gorrimi and some more I can’t remember. There was never any agression from any of the tiger barbs, guess i was luckey
Every fish can be different, and you can see it play out across hundreds of species. Tiger barbs are more predisposed to aggression, though there are some that will be peaceful. It’s like goldfish. Some will straight up murder their tank mates, especially during mating, while others are docile as sea cow. It all comes down to the individual fish.
I have two in a 7.5 gallon tank I was wondering if I should expect any problems and if so how do I solve that?
Can I put 1 shark fish with my 2 current barbs?
What kind of shark are you looking at? Each shark has very different requirements. Also, what is your tank size?
I have 75 g tank with 3 angels the ammonia is 0.25 from city water, any ideas already lost one of the 3 tigers
How long were in they in there? Did they show any unusual signs or symptoms before they died? If you lost three in rapid succession, usually that’s illness. Let me know if you say anything unusual first, and then I can give you more information.
Hey, how you doing im doing some research. I have 3 new tigers and i had one in my tank already. They have been in the tank for about 20 hours and 2 of the new ones are shaking and are swimming with there heads down.
Did you cycle the tank first? Do they appear sick, or are they doing the movements to each other? How did you add them to the tank?
Hello,
I got a large community tank with many different kinds of aggressive and semi-aggressive fish. I recently added 4 tiger barbs into my tank and they are doing just fine, but i’d like to know if they would school with other kinds of barbs. I like the ondesa barbs and i would like to add a couple of them without having to overpopulate the tank. Would they be fine schooling with the tiger barbs? Or would they just make their own little gang and hate each other for the rest of their fish life?
Pls reply asap.
Joe
You know the gangs from West Side Story? They would be like that, only with less snapping and dancing.
But in all seriousness, I’ve only ever known tiger barbs to try and shoal with other fish when there’s only one or two of them, and even that is pretty rare. I have heard of other people having success with differents types of barbs shoaling together, but I wouldn’t count on it.
I would actually pick up more tiger barbs, as they’re a wonderfully fish to watch in great numbers, and when they shoal together, it’s really impressive. Otherwise, I would try to get up to at least six of each species if your tank can accommodate it, because they always do better when kept in groups of at least six.
I have found that tiger barbs will school with tiger barbs of different colors. In my 36g bow front I have 3 tiger barbs (TB), 2 green TB, 3 albino TB, 2 strawberry TB, 2 platinum green TB and 2 platinum white TB. Oh, and 1 albino rainbow shark that rules the tank. When they school together its awsome.The TBs agression is mostly spent on each other. They leave my shark alone. When the shark swims thru they scatter to make room for him. I love my Tiger Barbs and would anyone to give them try.
That must make quite the sight when the school together. I’ve seen the green and regular barbs schooling together, but never any other colour variants.
I want to set up a tiger barb tank. What kind of plants can I put in there.
A lot depends on your water type. Do you know if you have hard or soft water?
I have two Tiger barbs in my tank with 4 Cherry barbs and a pretty big algae eater and I have not had issues with mine nipping fins. I have noticed my Algae eater will whip one of the tigers with his tail if they get to close to him but other then that. My tank is a peaceful one.
That’s great that your tank is so peaceful. A lot depends on the tank setup and the fish themselves, and it helps that most of your fish are semi-aggressive.
I have a large school of tigers/ albinos and greens in my 75(soon to move up to a 125) and they go after themselves while they are fighting for dominance, but my red tail shark controls that tanks and keeps the barbs in check. I also have some cherry, gold and Odessa barbs but they all stay to themselves mostly. I have a pleco, and sailfin molly(who is probably the worst behaved fish in the tank, always the other fish) 3 silver flying fox and 2 red flying fox and 3 panda garra, along with snails and shrimp, you can see why I’m moving them to a 125. But the barbs don’t bother any of the other fish, mostly because if they leave their corner of the tank the shark just chases them back lol, it’s his tank.
So the lesson to take away from this is to have a red tail shark bouncer in any aquarium with barbs. 🙂
It sounds like you have a great tank there though.
Got two tigers so far they are peaceful I will keep you guys updated.
That’s good news so far. Hopefully, they will remain peaceful for you.
Can I put them in a 2.5gallon tank
That tank size is way too small for them, and you’ll probably just end up with dead fish after a short while. The water will quickly crash in a tank that small, and you’ll never be able to keep up with the waste production of the fish.
can they be kept with zebra danios?
They would probably be alright with zebra danios. They are a tough fish, and are fast enough to stay well enough away from the tiger barbs. But you absolutely need to have a large aquarium for this to work. If they’re trapped together in a smaller aquarium like a 20 gallon, then you’re going to run into some problems.
I have a 55gal so it should be ok
hi I have a 20 gal tank with rocks and plastic plants,caves as I got 2 kribs hopeing to breed them . I hardly see them so I have bought 6 tiger barbs in the hope that it will cure there shyness .also do you think that 6 tb is enough to form a pair or should I get 2 more thanks
I have two tiger barbs and a very small tank. Can you tell me how could they breed without 20 gallon tank?
It’s hard to do it properly in a single, small tank. They may spawn on their own, but if you don’t do it the way described in the article, it’s unlikely to be very successful. The best thing to do it provide live plants, dense hiding places like Java moss, and give them high quality food to condition them. Beyond that, there isn’t much you can do.
I have 8 barbs with 4 cory’s and the cory’s seem to own the tank! When I put veggie tablets in, the tiger barbs get to eat them for a few minutes, but then it’s cory time. These tiger barbs are fun to watch. There’s a lot going on with pecking order and territory. Everyone…please go as big as you can with your tank! Imagine yourself inside the tank, and what you’d like to do in that tank if you were their size. Love this hobby!
This is great advice and I’m glad you’re enjoying the hobby. We need more people like you.
My tiger barbs ( 8 ) in a 55 long i noticed about 100 eggs. I have no other room to put them in. I read they eat their young….would an air stone and small betta bowl work for eggs if i scooped em out with a cup?
Unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t. They need a mature tank, as they are very sensitive to poor water conditions. You’d probably lose them to fungus or the fry would die. A divider or breeding net is the best option if you’re looking to raise some of the young
I have ten tiger barbs with Zebra Danios and Glowlight Tetras. The barbs couldn’t care less with the other fish. They are so fun to watch ! One of the zebra danios is still tiny but it swims really fast, not one barb can keep up 😁😁
That’s great you’ve made a tank work with tiger barbs. It definitely helps keeping them in a large school, since they tend to stick to picking on their own species that way.
What’s the best centerpiece fish for a 36 gallon with ~20 tiger barbs?
It’s really tough to find a good centerpiece fish with tiger barbs, and you’re already fully stocked. A gourami might be a good centerpiece fish, if you can control the aggression. Also, some small dwarf cichlids like apistos or Boliviam rams should also be able to hold their own in the tank. But always watch out to make sure the fish aren’t getting injured or stressed from aggression.
I liked the albino rainbow shark that I had in my 36g with 15 tiger barbs. The shark was aggressive ennough to handle the barbs. It worked for me.
We have a 29 gallon with 4 tiger barbs, 3 black skirted tetras, and an angel fish. Every once in a while the tiger barbs will bobble and wobble. Is typically the largest and widest of the four. Is this a mating ritual? seems to last about a day and then goes back to normal. Thoughts?
Generally speaking, they only do that for a short time when they’re exhibiting reproductive behavior. It might be something referred to as the ‘shimmies’. While the shimmies can be caused by many things, it usually means something is off with the water – as long as there are no other symptoms like bloat or fungus. That means either the temperature is too low, the hardness is off, or the tank wasn’t properly cycled.
First, check the temp. If the temp is fine, then test the water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. If those are fine, then check the hardness. Finally, if the hardness is within their preferred range, find out if your tap water water has high levels of copper in it or other potentially harmful minerals. If it does, then you can buy a product to treat the water for the fish. Most of the other problems can be treated with a few water changes.
Let me know if you have any further questions.