# Tiger Barbs and 2 species of MBuna



## Gregory D (Apr 29, 2011)

I was speakin to others on the forum could tiger barbs or any other community fish be added with mbuna cichlid just looking for any imput on this subject...


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

No absolutely not, the mbuna will likely kill them or cause them serious injury at the very least. There is a similar thread which we discussed on here earlier relating to Angelfish with mbuna which again is a bad combination. The only fish which are able to survive with mbuna besides other Malawi cichlids (in large tanks) are Synodontis Catfish or Bristlenose Plecos. The only fish I ever have and ever will mix with mbuna are Synodontis. Community fish cannot defend themselves against mbuna aggression.


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## dillon0990 (Jun 11, 2011)

i had 6 tiger barbs in my mbuna tank with 18 mbuna. for 4 months. I did notice some nipped fins but i think the alpha male tiger barb actually was the one that did it because i never seen them get chased by the mbuna. maybe i just got lucky...they did kill my pleco though


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## GoofBoy (Jul 3, 2007)

Melanochromis said:


> The only fish which are able to survive with mbuna besides other Malawi cichlids (in large tanks) are Synodontis Catfish or Bristlenose Plecos.


I disagree with this statement. There are plenty of victorians that can do just fine in a mbuna tank, by way of example, my P. nyererei have no issues whatsoever.

But, of course, they are definitely *not* community fish either.


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## johnc87 (Jul 26, 2011)

I have 5 Tiger Barbs in a 55 with yellow labs and acie.I've had no problems,been in there for a little over a month now. I guess it also may depend on the agression level of the mbuna in question???


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

GoofBoy said:


> Melanochromis said:
> 
> 
> > The only fish which are able to survive with mbuna besides other Malawi cichlids (in large tanks) are Synodontis Catfish or Bristlenose Plecos.
> ...


Sorry I probably should have revised/reword that, I know lots of people have Tangs and Victorians with Malawi cichlids and they do fine together. The gist of my point was community fish and mbuna long term do not mix.


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## GoofBoy (Jul 3, 2007)

johnc87 said:


> I have 5 Tiger Barbs in a 55 with yellow labs and acie.I've had no problems,been in there for a little over a month now. I guess it also may depend on the agression level of the mbuna in question???


So you know, 1 or 4 months is not generally not considered success here on these boards - more like 2 years before you can claim success and the board veterans will accept it as a valid datapoint.

I believe the point *Melanochromis* is making is that it is _highly unlikely_ that you will have any kind of success in the longterm housing community fish with mbuna.

Many have tried and the vast majority have failed, and we don't want to hear about dead community fish anymore than we want to hear about dead cichlids.

While the mbuna are young, things may go fine, but once they sexually mature (~6-8 months) and become territorial, the aggression ramps way way up and they become very tough to live with, and most all community fish simply can't handle it.

It is one thing to be an experienced fish keeper with a bunch of tanks and trying some non-conventional stuff together and another thing to be a newbie with one tank and have no place to move a fish that is getting terrorized or abused. That senario takes all of the fun out of the hobby.

I think I can speak for most posters here and say our advice tends to be conservative to give what we believe it the highest chance of success based on our experiences and knowledge.

Your tank and fish and obviously you can try anything you like - both general and (specific via examples) long-term wisdom indicates it is not the best idea to combine the two. The safer approach is keeping them separate.

Good Luck to all.


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