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! :-)

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

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

Yes they certainly have that reputation. If I keep them I think I will
have to have a spp tank with perhaps some kind fo non-harrassable algae
eating fish and that's it. Do you know if there is an algae eating spp
which would do OK with barbs? (The lfs had flying foxes in the barb
tank and they seemed OK - holding their own. But the barbs were very
young and probably not yet very aggressive,

Many Thanks,

Muddy

"muddyfox" wrote in message
oups.com...
Yes they certainly have that reputation. If I keep them I think I will
have to have a spp tank with perhaps some kind fo non-harrassable algae
eating fish and that's it. Do you know if there is an algae eating spp
which would do OK with barbs?

They pretty much left my pleco alone but then he hid in the rocks during the
day. The Tigers didn't move around much after lights-out. That's when the
pleco made his/her appearance.

(The lfs had flying foxes in the barb
tank and they seemed OK - holding their own. But the barbs were very
young and probably not yet very aggressive,

I personally wouldn't keep anything with them.
--
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.

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