Where to put my tiger barb?

RazorDX

I have the following three tanks:

10 gallon; One dalmatian molly, Two scissortails, Three neon tetras.

5 gallon; One tiger barb.

1 gallon; three molly fry.

The dilemma is that the molly fry are getting to be nearly 3/8 - 1/2 inch in size... about time to transfer them to another tank. I had intentions of putting them in the 5 gallon tank, but I have heard that without other tiger barbs (around 5 of them), the fish can get somewhat aggressive. I don't want the tiger barb to bully the mollies to death... will they be alright with him or should I put him in the ten gallon? In the 10 gallon he will be about the size of the tetras, the other fish are about twice his size. Will the larger fish keep him from bullying as much or will he just be a nuisance to all of them? What should I do?

Nick

Hey,

With the looks of your situation your not in a good spot! The tiger barb will NO DOUBT kill your baby fishy's to death if you put them in with him. He will most likely bully your Neons for sure since they are smaller. The other fish, even though there bigger, wont be able to fight with a tiger barb. IMO I would take him to a LFS and see if you could get any in store credit or even just put him up for ' adoption ' at the LFS. This is for your fishy's sake....

Nick

joeshmoe

i agree with nick

jojoyojimbi

take him back to the LFS and ask for some credit

RazorDX

What about putting him in the 1 gallon until I can get something like a 2 gallon set up? I could just get about 6 more (tuesdays the pet store does a buy one-get one free deal) and give them to my brother for a christmas present. He has a three year old 55-gallon freshwater setup... a school of these guys would add to the looks.

bettababy

That will depend on 2 things... how big the tiger barb is at this point (they get quite large) and what else is in your brother's tank.
Whenever a customer asked for a fish to put into someone else's tank, we warned constantly about making sure that the other person's tank is suitable, both in water quality and compatibility. If you can get a stock list of what is in your brother's tank, we can then help you further.
The minimum tank size to raise a tiger barb by itself should be 10 gallons. If the barb is very small (under 2 inches), then you could safely keep it alone in a 2 gallon for a short period of time, provided it has the right equipment hooked up, including a filter and heater, decorations, and regular weekly water changes of 20%.

RazorDX

I have decided to keep this guy in the 5g he is in and put the mollies in the 10g for the moment. For one, the 5g isn't properly cycled yet (still kinda new) and has the stock filter/lighting, all that. It was a 30 dollar kit at walmart, so I don't expect the filter to be able to handle much more than one tiger barb.

I have been hinted that for christmas I may be receiving a 55gallon... if so, then overcrowding won't be a problem anymore.

bettababy

That's great news, but a word of warning: don't add a tiger barb into a tank with mollies, even if it's 55 gallons. In the end all you'll have is the tiger barb. Tiger barbs are much more aggressive, and get quite large. They do best with others in the barb category.