Tiger Barbs and Leopard Danios

Hi,

Would a small group of Tiger Barbs (say 6-8) be OK with Leopard Danios.
The reserach I've done suggests that the danios are fast enough to
keep away from the tigers when they need to but I've never kept tigers
before(or any kind of barb for that matter) and I'm not sure how to
deal with their aggresion towards tank mates? Maybe a spp tank would
be best but that would leave the top of the tank free of fish. Ho
hum...

Anyone got any experience of this?

Many thanks,

Muddy

"muddyfox" wrote...
Hi,

Would a small group of Tiger Barbs (say 6-8) be OK with Leopard Danios.
The reserach I've done suggests that the danios are fast enough to
keep away from the tigers when they need to but I've never kept tigers
before(or any kind of barb for that matter) and I'm not sure how to
deal with their aggresion towards tank mates? Maybe a spp tank would
be best but that would leave the top of the tank free of fish. Ho
hum...

Anyone got any experience of this?

Many thanks,

Muddy

not with danios and barbs mixed to a great degree, i do have experience with
each seperatly- mostly w/ tigers. 6-8 barbs is usually best for keeping the
nipping and pecking within their group, i'd advise keeping all of one type
though without mixing green tigers and regular striped tigers. the danios
are fast enough to keep away however much of the notorious fin nipping by
barbs is done in shuch a way that the group will wear an individual down
till it is exhausted (much in the way hyena's run down larger game) or by
sneak attack. personally, i dont forsee too many complications with mixing
the two so long as there is enough space. barbs will stick to the mid to
lower levels of the tank but frequently will move to upper levels lloking
for food, fight, or fun. danios will keep more to the upper areas,
partially because of the barbs. if you have never kept barbs, be prepared:
they are a social species that loves nothing more than to fight amonst
themselves or anything else that looks like it can be fun. i've used the
description of their behavior before as combination between wolf mentality
(running with a pack) and pirannahs (killing off the weakest among
themselves) and would add to that something along the lines of otters (loves
to play and curious about everything). many people swear they will never
take in tiger barbs simply because of their harrassment behavior towards
other fish. they are fun to watch, always into something, but limit what
else you can ever put in a tank with them. if you get them as juviniles,
they will seem to get along with everyone quite well without a high degree
of harrassment, however after a year or so when they mature, their behavior
will drastically change and they will become more agressive.

personally, i love the tiger barbs and would encourage you to try it. they
were one of the first fish i ever kept and really learned about.
additionally, i'd encourage other posters here to reply wrt some of the cons
of tiger barbs and why they would not keep them just to be sure you get a
full perspective on them.

HTH, BoL! :-)

Moments before spontaneously combusting muddyfox at
was heard opining:

Hi,

Would a small group of Tiger Barbs (say 6-8) be OK with Leopard
Danios. The reserach I've done suggests that the danios are fast
enough to keep away from the tigers when they need to but I've never
kept tigers before(or any kind of barb for that matter) and I'm not
sure how to deal with their aggresion towards tank mates? Maybe a
spp tank would be best but that would leave the top of the tank free
of fish. Ho hum...
===============
The Tigers will bother other fish - at least all those I ever had did. They
also can get quite large when well cared for. What you see in the stores
are very young T-barbs.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Aquarium FAQ are at: http://faq.thekrib.com/
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

"muddyfox" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

Would a small group of Tiger Barbs (say 6-8) be OK with Leopard Danios.
The reserach I've done suggests that the danios are fast enough to
keep away from the tigers when they need to but I've never kept tigers
before(or any kind of barb for that matter) and I'm not sure how to
deal with their aggresion towards tank mates? Maybe a spp tank would
be best but that would leave the top of the tank free of fish. Ho
hum...

Anyone got any experience of this?

Many thanks,

Muddy


I've got T'Barbs and Tetras together and the Tetras have been fine. The
Barbs occasionally bother the Loaches, but mostly stick to chasing
themselves. I've also got six Rosy Barbs, so this may help spread out the
aggression a bit.

I've got 5 tigerbarbs in with 4 grown mollies and around 9 various
sized babies. They were kind of shy of the mollies in the beginning esp
at feeding time they were all wait for the food to sink down while the
molies were at the surface eating everything in sight. Don't have a
problem with that now. The tigerbarbs completely ignore the mollies,
the mollies boss each other around but ignore the tigerbarbs too.

muddyfox wrote:

Would a small group of Tiger Barbs (say 6-8) be OK with Leopard Danios.

Probably not. You'll more than likely start finding leopards dead or
with only one eye - harassing timid/smaller/ill/weaker fish, and eating
eyes, are trade-mark tiger barb behavior. The whole group will
relentlessly chase any fish showing any sign of weakness.
Tiger barb, like chinese algae eater, are among those fish I don't
recommend to people who just want something for their community tank:
they're not community fish.

Fortunately most barbs aren't anything like tiger barbs, and many of
them are prettier to boot. I'd suggest looking in to five-banded barbs
(Puntius pentazona,
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/images/...s/Pupen_m0.jpg ) for a fish
which is much nicer and more colorful, yet still looks much like tiger
barbs.
Other nicer alternatives include e.g. Puntius rhomboocellatus
(http://www.israquarium.co.il/FishPho...oocellatus.jpg )
or Barbus fasciolatus
(http://www.israquarium.co.il/Fish/Ba...sciolatus.html ).
All of these should be reasonably easy to find - although not as easy
as the ubiquitous tiger barbs.

Thanks for that. Mmmmm - those tigers really are anti-social eh? I do
really like the look of the pentazona barbs - a nice fish shape
instead of the funny diamond shape of the tigers - but I heard that
they were far less hardy than the tigers - is that true? (I can't find
much info on them.)

The other thing I was thinking about was perhaps a small group of
golden barbs with a small group of black widow tetra. They make a nice
contrast in colour and form and seem to enjoy similar tank conditions
and levels of aggression/non-aggression. Do you have any thoughts on
this idea? Also, is there a good algae-eater which will not damage my
plants and not be hassled by barbs (tiger or golden) and black tetras?
I was thinking of otos or flying foxes or small plecs (zebra?).

Thanks ever so much for the barb links - really useful info!

Muddy

That sounds like they have found a way to live together relatively
peacefully. I guess the mollies, being fully grown, are quite large.
Maybe the tigers know when to leave well alone.

Many thanks,

Muddy

Hi,

What loaches do you have? I need to think about something to eat some
algae. (I'm new to aquascaping and I suspect I could easily end up
with a lot of algae especially when I get the the point where I need to
start dosing with KNO3.)

Thanks!

Muddy

I really love the look of them - those striking black stripes are
georgeous! But I may not like their behaviour. Hmmmm. Mind you I
love wolves - I find them really amazing to watch so perhaps I woudl
like tigers.

I will probably not put them with danios though - I hate the idea of
finding dead fish.

Many thanks - really useful perpective and info,

Muddy