Tiger Barbs: Gender and Illness

[A. Scott]

Group and hobby newbie here....

Just started a tank over the weekend (filled it, treated it, let it go
for 24 hours prior to adding fish). Dolt at the fish store let me
purchase 2 Tiger Barbs and 2 Rosy Barbs for cycling the tank.
Needless to say, the larger Tiger was pestering the two Rosys to no
end.

I did some reading and went and got two more Tigers the next day. The
Rosys are thanking me. :)

The two new Tigers are just fine. However, the smaller of the first
two ("Stasi"--because he/she always appears to be static in a state of
stasis) has now taken to hiding from everyone. He/she doesn't eat at
all and will hover in the same spot for great lengths of time. What I
read indicates I've go a sick fish. However, I was wondering if the
initial stress of the move, the beatings, the newcomers, hasn't just
kind of given this guy/girl a weird personality. Is this possible or
am I reading too much into it?

And as you can tell, I'm not clear on how to tell the sex of a Tiger
Barb. Fat and skinny don't seem to work in this case, unless they are
all the same sex. The smallest of the new pair has no red lips, which
I think means female, correct? And speaking of lips, Stasi appears to
swollen or protruding red lips, unlike the others.

Can anyone provide some guidance here? I'm worried that Stasi is ill
and should be removed from the tank before something affects the
others. Thoughts?

[Rick]

"A. Scott" > wrote in message
...
> Group and hobby newbie here....
>
> Just started a tank over the weekend (filled it, treated it, let it go
> for 24 hours prior to adding fish). Dolt at the fish store let me
> purchase 2 Tiger Barbs and 2 Rosy Barbs for cycling the tank.
> Needless to say, the larger Tiger was pestering the two Rosys to no
> end.
>
> I did some reading and went and got two more Tigers the next day. The
> Rosys are thanking me. :)
>
> The two new Tigers are just fine. However, the smaller of the first
> two ("Stasi"--because he/she always appears to be static in a state of
> stasis) has now taken to hiding from everyone. He/she doesn't eat at
> all and will hover in the same spot for great lengths of time. What I
> read indicates I've go a sick fish. However, I was wondering if the
> initial stress of the move, the beatings, the newcomers, hasn't just
> kind of given this guy/girl a weird personality. Is this possible or
> am I reading too much into it?
>
> And as you can tell, I'm not clear on how to tell the sex of a Tiger
> Barb. Fat and skinny don't seem to work in this case, unless they are
> all the same sex. The smallest of the new pair has no red lips, which
> I think means female, correct? And speaking of lips, Stasi appears to
> swollen or protruding red lips, unlike the others.
>
> Can anyone provide some guidance here? I'm worried that Stasi is ill
> and should be removed from the tank before something affects the
> others. Thoughts?


you don't mention how big you tank is however I would not add any new fish
to an uncycled tank at this point. You may have too many already. In any
event if they survive the cycling process then Tiger Barbs are best kept in
groups of about 8 or more if other fish are present. This keeps them
occupied with each other and not the other fish. Male tiger barbs will have
red noses, in particular when they want to breed. Females will be much
plumper when they are holding eggs. I just spawned mine on Dec. 4 and have
about 30 fry growing nicely right now.

Rick

[Tedd Jacobs]

"A. Scott" wrote...
> Group and hobby newbie here....
>
> Just started a tank over the weekend (filled it, treated it, let it go
> for 24 hours prior to adding fish). Dolt at the fish store let me
> purchase 2 Tiger Barbs and 2 Rosy Barbs for cycling the tank.
> Needless to say, the larger Tiger was pestering the two Rosys to no
> end.
>
> I did some reading and went and got two more Tigers the next day. The
> Rosys are thanking me. :)

sounds like you are off to a very good start, tigers are excelent fish to cycle
a tank with, they are hardy fish. a group of four of them is one of the best
ways to start. i dont know too much about rosy barbs, my suggestion with them
would be to return them if you can for an instore credit (although it should be
noted there are others here who would recomend the oposite). it's more than
likey you will end up losing one or two of the tiger barbs, it you trade in now
for the instore credit, you prevent losing them to illness, you've returned them
in a timely manner assuring they are in decent health, and you'll have your next
two replacement tiger barbs already paid for. plus if you dont lose any of the
current tigers, you have two more already paid for once the tank cycles! ;-)

> The two new Tigers are just fine. However, the smaller of the first
> two ("Stasi"--because he/she always appears to be static in a state of
> stasis) has now taken to hiding from everyone. He/she doesn't eat at
> all and will hover in the same spot for great lengths of time. What I
> read indicates I've go a sick fish. However, I was wondering if the
> initial stress of the move, the beatings, the newcomers, hasn't just
> kind of given this guy/girl a weird personality. Is this possible or
> am I reading too much into it?

yes, your tiger barb is not feeling well. it could be a mirad of things that are
wrong, at the top of the list is stress. moving and cycling are huge stresses on
fish, and there really isnt anything you can do about it except keep up the
water changes. hopefully it'll perk back up soon, dont over-stress about it.
reduce your feeding schedule to half of what you are doing now. one of the
biggest mistakes new hobbiest do is over-feeding. dont worry about your fish
looking like they are hungry, they wont starve to death and even at
half-feedings they are getting more food than they were at the fish store.

> And as you can tell, I'm not clear on how to tell the sex of a Tiger
> Barb. Fat and skinny don't seem to work in this case, unless they are
> all the same sex. The smallest of the new pair has no red lips, which
> I think means female, correct? And speaking of lips, Stasi appears to
> swollen or protruding red lips, unlike the others.

swollen lips can be a sign of another problem. hopefully someone else here can
adress this one and let us know wht they think.

sexing tigers can be a real trick. there are alot of 'sure-fire' ways to tell if
one is a male or female,... but most of them are wrong if used on their own.
there is a bunch of different things to look at and take into consideration when
trying to sex barbs. with tigers it comes down to about 3 or 4 things to look
at;
1.) color. males tend to be more "brightly" colored, meaning that they have a
tendancy to have more orange or red on their tails (for those with red tails-
some have black: see #3 below), fins, and nose. with new, young, or just moved
(stressed) tigers, this can be non-telling, both sexes can display the same
amount of varience in coloring when under stressful environments or situations.
2.) size. females tend to be larger and "fatter" than the males. this is again
very non-telling with new or young tigers, (not to mention if one happens to be
bloated or constipated).
3.) tail ray. this is probably the conformation for the sexing of tiger barbs.
once you've done your best guess based on the other two, check the rays on the
tail (rays = the coloring on the tail that starts at the base and fans outward
towards the end.) different tigers will have different colored rays on their
tails, some black, some red/orange. one of the greatest misnomers of sexing
tigers is that "red tails are male; black tails are female", this is *not* true.
males will tend to have "darker" rays on their tails, meaning, they have more of
the color, be it black or red/orange. females will have less, or a more
transparent tail. again, this is not always correct, especially with young or
new tigers.
4.) experience. this is really the best way. of all the tigers i have i can look
at them and tell imediately which are males and which are females. take me to a
pet store and i have a fairly good idea of the sexes, but not for certain. bring
a new tiger home and within a couple days i can tell you for sure.

the biggest thing is; it helps to have a happy, healthy fish so they will
display their full colors and reach their full size. but even then, it really
boils down to a 50/50 guess.

> Can anyone provide some guidance here? I'm worried that Stasi is ill
> and should be removed from the tank before something affects the
> others. Thoughts?

unless you have a quarantine tank i'm not quite sure what you mean by "removed".
returned to the fish store? flushed? put in a bowl of water? at this point i
would leave 'stasi' in the tank with the other fish. even if stasi is ill, she
is a boon to the other tigers, who find security in numbers. if stasi is still
alive in the morning, then he/she is still healthy enough to run with the other
tigers who would kill him/her just for being weaker if they felt they could get
away with it.

hope this helps. best of luck and keep the questions coming.

tedd.

p.s. someone give us some more information on the swollen lips thing please.
thanks. :-)