Loaches Online Forum

Considering getting some tiger barbs for my future 671 liter of 2.42m x 77cm footprint.
Just concerned whether the 3 fish species listed that would go in the tank too (and I already have the archerfish and catfish, so growing them out with the barbs is not an option) might eat them? I suspect they might and that I might have to skip the tiger barbs, but I have never had tiger barbs before so I'm asking in case I missed something.

The problem with tiger barbs - I think these are Puntius tetrazona - is their mobbing.

In nature they re eaten by snkeheads fish, which have long ponited fins. These barb attack all such fins, i order to chase the predators away - and this is a behaviour they will not loose. I think this might affect your P pictus. Mobbing is the official scientific name for this behaviour, so Google can help you further.

Furhter, a school is mandatory, but I assume you dit not intend keeping 1 or 2

Yes, I was intending on a large size school. 8-12 or so.
The mobbing behavior towards the fins would explain why they are considered fin nippers. I agree that might cause problems with the pictus catfish, they could get their whiskers chewed off for example.

So the barbs being eaten is not the only thing that could go wrong it seems. I think it'd be best to pass on them.

In fact, I would not excect predation. After all, P pictus only reach 10, 12 cm, and your Archerfish - if these are Toxodes, thay don't get much bigger. However, thinking of Toxodes, as far as I know they all come from brackish water and the Tigers like their water soft.

Concerning the brackish water, mine are small scale archers (Toxotes microlepis). As far as I'm aware, these usually live in fresh water and don't need brackish (although they can live in brackish, it's not a must).

I've seen both them and the pictus catfish eat pieces of squid about the same length and girth as tiger barbs, which is why I was worried about predation. They do have quite large mouths after all.