Hi!

I just went to the pet store and bought two tiger barbs thinking that I could put them in the same tank with my 3 glo light tetras, black tetra, and another tetra that I am not sure of the name, but now I came home and looked it up and it says that they shouldn't be in the same tank together. The lady there said they could be, so now I am not sure what to do. I haven't put them in the tank together yet, but I probably will tonight. Right now they are just in a one gallon holder tank. I have a ten gallon tank that I think I am going to put them all in. Right now the other 5 fish are in a five gallon tank. Do you think that I should get a tank divider and put the tiger barbs on one side and the rest on the other side? So far that is my only plan. I just don't want my new fish to hurt my old fish!! Let me know what you think!!

Thanks in advance,
Laura

Tiger barbs can be aggressive but more so when they are few of them. If you have a group of tiger barbs (over 6), they tend to stick together and pester each other instead. Since you have just two, they might pick on the smaller fish. But, fish are individuals so it's hard to predict if the ones you have will be aggressive or not. Plus, danios are pretty quick. By black tetra, do you mean blackskirt (also called black widow) tetra, black phantom tetra, or black neon tetra? Black widow and black phantom tetras can also be aggressive but usually with their own species.

All of the fish you have prefer to be in schools of fish so they will feel uncomfortable and be either more aggressive or more scared. The tiger barbs tend to be more aggressive when not in a large group while tetras tend to be scared.

I'm not going to tell you not to put the fish together but I would caution you to keep an eye on them and separate them if any fish harm other fish. If you want to put in a divider, that's certainly one option but dividers can be a pain (making it harder to clean the tank and so on). Starting the fish with the divider and seeing how they behave/act towards each other first before trying to put them together is an option. There are no guarantees either way. They may all get along fine, or there may be a lot of fin damage. Sorry that I can't give a definitive answer! It reminds me of a video I just saw of a pit bull with a duckling. They were getting along, even loving each other. But, it could have turned out a whole lot differently. It wasn't a good gamble in that case. With the fish, it's not that extreme but it's still upredictable.

Good luck!