"Bill Stock" wrote...
What's the life span for Tiger Barbs?

6-8 years, under optimal conditions. most barbs dont die of old age
however,...


I was cleaning the tank today and found one dead on the bottom. I think it
must have been dead for at least a couple of days, as it had lost most of
it's colour and most of the head had been pecked away. It was also a
little ripe when I scooped it out. I did a complete water test and
everything came out fine, so he either died of old age or someone did him
in. The suspects include 8 Cardinal Tetras, 5 other Tiger Barbs, 6 Golden
Rosy Barbs, 4 SAEs, 3 Yoyo Loaches and an unknown number of Otos.

my money's on the other tigers. ;-)



Should I be concerned about replacing him anytime soon? I know the minimum
number for T' Barbs is about six. But I hate to add new fish, when the
tank has been stable for quite a while. I'm also near the limit for this
tank already, 55 gallons.

TIA.

i think i posted here once about odd v. even numbers in relation to mixed
groups of barbs, unfortunately, if i did i cant find it now. assuming your
barbs are all of the common striped variety (i.e. not greens or albinos
etc.) you should be fine with 5 for a while. watch their behavior and see
if they are picking at any of the other fish to a higher degree. also look
for any that are being stand-offish from the rest. without knowing more
about your set up (how long it's been exstablished, how long you've had the
fish, etc.) it's hard to say what's going on. one guess could be that the
barbs are doing their typical behavior of establishing a dominance heirarchy
and eliminated the weakest one among them. a second guess might be that he
caught an illness or such and the other barbs picked him off. bottom line-
anytime you loose a tiger barb, it's usually at the hands of the other
tigers.

HTH. let us know if you have any other questions. :-)