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How to care for Tiger Barbs Aggressive Fish

Why are my Tiger Barbs hiding? Why are my Tiger Barbs so aggressive?

By Gus KriderPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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How to care for Tiger Barbs Aggressive Fish
Photo by Samuele Giglio on Unsplash

Tiger Barbs are wonderful aquarium fish, having tiger barbs in the fish tank can add lots of color and activity. Tiger Barbs come in several different color types, including glow fish, and are popular aquarium fish as they don’t grow to be very large. Still properly caring for your tiger barbs is easy as long as you provide them with a safe environment.

How much space do tiger barbs need?

Short answer, about a gallon per barb at the minimum, and barbs should never be alone, so at least a ten gallon tank I would suggest. It may seem trendy to keep them in something smaller, but trust that is just because many fish tanks are not designed with the health of the fish in mind, they are designed so that people buy them.

Scroll through any online store suppling fish and you will see some tiny god awful vessels for sale. Pet stores like it when you buy little things of stagnant water, it means you’ll be coming in to buy fish from them monthly. Vases, tanks less than five gallons, and other perhaps ascetically pleasing items that hold water are the reason fish are called America’s number one abused pet. Pet fish need room to be happy and healthy, just like people do.

If you see these little fish prisons on the internet you will often notice that the promotional image is a juvenile tiger barb. The reason being that fish stores often sell tiger barbs when they are very small, and a very small tiger barb helps to make a mason jar look less cruel, but it is cruel. Tiger barbs need room to swim, hiding places, and enough water to keep it healthy. A small container would quickly fill with fish waste killing the fish.

Are Tiger barbs a schooling fish? Yes!

Tiger Barbs tend to be aggressive in small groups, this is very likely due to stress. Schooling is a defense mechanism, meaning, a schooling fish alone is going to feel very vulnerable. I hate the idea of the fish in my tank being lonely, but I loathe the idea that my fish spend every moment terrified in my aquarium, when you’ve gone to the trouble of building them a home with no predators. Still a tiger barb will not feel safe in your fish tank unless they are in a group of at least 6.

Why are my tiger barbs so aggressive?

A tiger barb without a school is exceptionally dangerous for tank mates, but even in groups tiger barbs are pretty naturally bullies. I struggled with this for a long time. Some fault to Petsmart and Glowfish, but when I started in the hobby tiger barbs were presented to me as a community fish. I put them in my 40 gallon tank, and I’m ashamed to say that they ate all my cherry shrimp, killed all my guppies, killed a few of my mollies, and devoured the albino tiger barbs I tried to add to my existing tiger barb school, all in an effort to calm them down. Though they do manage to coexist with my Cory Cats and my Bala Shark, I ended up moving my six tiger barbs to their own tank, so that my mollies can enjoy the 40 gallon aquarium in peace.

Why are my tiger barbs hiding?

Every time I net the tiger barbs I seem to traumatize them. Home from the fish store, one week hiding, moved to a new tank, one week hiding. It seems like the tiger barbs natural response to human intervention is to hide behind something in the aquarium, and not to move much. Alarming as this is, it seems to be normal for the first week in their new fish tank. Still if a week after placing the barbs they are still hiding, then it is time to trouble shoot. They may be hiding because your tank hasn’t got enough cover, live plants will make your tiger barbs more comfortable exploring your fish tank, as well as improving water quality. Another issue may be too much lighting. My barbs when hiding become way more active when the tank light is off, and then slowly gain the confidence to free swim in daylight. So consider turning the light off, in fact any seasoned aquarist knows that a tank with 24 hour lighting will develop algae and fish mental health problems.

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