Tiger Barbs 

Tiger Barbs. Photo By: Moof 

Tiger Barbs are instantly recognisable by almost everyone. Most people make the same mistake with their first tank and buy all their fish in twos. If you do that with these fish you will soon have a situation that requires you to intervene because they will be nipping the fins of all the other fish. These fish must be kept in a shoal, their squabbling will then be confined to each other and the other fish will be left alone.

They will eat almost every thing on offer but if you want to breed them they will require extra protein in there diet. Freeze dried Tubifex is one of the best foods for this along with other live food.

If you want to spawn the fish on purpose and raise a brood of fry, the sexes will need to be seperated or there is every chance the fish will breed in the conditioning tank. Healthy Tiger Barbs will frequently spawn in a community tank although it is extremely unlikely any fry will survive.The sexes can be told apart because the female is slightly smaller and more plump.

Once seperated feed them on conditioning food as mentioned above. Keep the temp at 80f and on the 3rd or 4th day let the fish in together in the breeding tank which has been set up as follows. Temp 80f slightly soft acidic water, with a mature sponge filter and either two spawning mops or two bunches of Cabomba. Spawning should comence almost right away or if the fish aren't quite ready within a day or so. The spawning involves the male(s) chasing the female(s) around and through the spawning mops or plants leaving a trail of eggs and sperm in their wake.Once the spawning is over remove the fish or the eggs will be eaten.

These fish lay semi adhesive eggs and they will be scatered all over the tank and stuck to everything. The eggs hatch and the fry will be free swimming at around day 5 at 80f. They are large enough to accept newly hatched brine shrimps or finely powdered flake food. But the better growth rates will come with the brine shrimp. A number of similar barbs are bred in an identical way to this. Unless you have a lot of tank space for growing on some fry may have to be culled or the entire brood may suffer, because these fish have large broods.

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Cherry Barbs spawning. Photo By: Cillana

This is the same type of set up that can be used by many small Barbs. Here plants have been used instead of an artificial spawning mop, both will work equally well.

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