Tiger barbs originate from Southern Asia(Indonesia, Borneo, Thailand and Sumatra). Their homes in the wild are fast flowing shallow rivers. Because of the climate of the area tiger barbs prefer warm waters in the 24-28 celcius range(27-28 being breeding temperature).

Tiger barbs are a schoaling fish which means they like to be in groups of 6 or more. If using less than this there is likely to be problems with agression as tigers are generally very nippy fish and will injure each others fins readily. With a larger group aggression tends to get spread out between them. Another plus of keeping them in large groups is the fact that they become more "community" friendly. When housed in small groups not only will they pick on each other but they will pick on any other fish with long, flowing fins.

Food :

Tiger barbs are pigs to put it bluntly. They will eat just about anything but in the tank. I have even observed 3 try to eat a hair. After one spits it out another will grab it, he will to spit it out and it goes back and forth until eventually they forget about it.

Just because they will eat just about anything doesn't mean you shouldn'tvary your diet. To keep any fish happy it is suggested to feed different things. Barbs will readily accpet flake food, pellet food, live food, frozen food. As I said pretty much anything! I like to feed mine some crushed flakes in the morning, in the mid day I crush up a bit of shrimp pellet(this also allows it to float). They seem to go nuts over that also. In the evenings I either go back to flake food or some other type of pellet. Once or twice a week they get a blood worm treat. Yum.