tiger barbs...what are they doing?!

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woofy

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
May 2, 2007
5,341
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Miami
i jsut went past one of my tanks where i have 6 tiger barbs and to of them where mouth to mouth just dancing around. Then were spinning around in a little bundle then they stopped and back to lip locking. i havent had tiger barbs in a while so i dont remember what this means. im guessing dominance? they both have bright red nose so i think i remeber this means males? i dunno whats going on...:nilly::nilly:
 
thats what i assumed since they both seem to be male maybe? and the rest female (based on red nose or not method) , so i thought maybe they were fighting over mating rights or something....

do these usually breed easy?
 
my tiger barbs did exactly the same, I do believe that the red noses is a sure way of distinguishing males.... all about dominance and mating,
 
Yeah, when I had some they also did that. Those fish seem to be almost constantly checking and re-checking the pecking order, pretty amusing.
 
it was really interesting to see , like mini cichlids going at it. and they would tumble so tightly looked like a little tornado of tiger barbs. Ive had tiger barb eggs but never seen how the process goes about.
 
I've never kept tiger barbs, but my male rosy barbs did the same thing. If they weren't chasing the females trying to get them to spawn, they were doing the whirlwind dance with each other. You'd think they'd get dizzy...
 
Ive got a big female that chases around one of my males and they do the same thing. I trhink she wants to mate and hes scared of her.:ROFL:
 
I did a lot of research on tiger barbs a while back before they got eaten:ROFL:. The lip locking is mostly a sign of dominance, and establishing a pecking order. When they are ready to mate they start nipping at each others anal fins. First the male will chase the female, and when she has chosen a mate she will return the favor. The only way to keep the eggs is to seperate the adults as soon as the eggs are fertilized or shortly there after, the shoal will gobble them down almost as fast as she can lay them.
 
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