The shoaling instincts of barbs, such as these Red Tiger Barbs, even extend to their spawning behavior. Several males take part in this process in the wild, so it is best to house a single female in the breeding tank with at least two males.
African and Asian barbs have been exploited by the aquarium trade for many years. Wild stocks of some species such as Barbus titteya (Cherry Barb) from Sri Lanka are very low, but the species is still widely available in the hobby, due to captive breeding. The majority of the small barbs are bred by the thousand in fish farms in the Far East, South Africa, eastern Europe, and Florida. Captive-bred fishes are easier to transport and not as sensitive to changes in water conditions as wild fishes, and so are easier to acclimatize.
