Aggresive Tiger Barb

[BettyM]

I have 3 new Tiger Barbs.They are small, med,large.The large one chases the other's around and sometime's my pink kissing gourami.Is this normal or is he just a bully?How do youi sex them?I wasa woundering if maybe he is a male?

 

[The-Wolf]

to sex TBs is relativly easy
males have a red nose and a red trailing edge to the dorsal fin, females do not.
(Edit Thats sexually mature males, juviniles don't)

do you have just the three TBs?
they are well known as fin nipping aggressive fish when kept in small groups.
the best way to combat this natural behaviour is to increase the school.
I personally recomend 8 as a min but others say 6.

either way the idea is to have a group large enough that they concentrate
on each other and leave other fish alone.

 

[BettyM]

I have 3 Tiger Barb's and 1 Kissing Gourami,1 Pocasutmous sp?{black sucking fish}1 Dragon fish{that my best friend just brought me} .All of this in a 10gl.And I have 3 large ghost shrimp and 3 black mystery snail's in a 1 gl tank.I was woundering if I can put the 3 shrimp and snail's in the 10 gl?Should I take the aggresive tiger and put him in the 1 gl?That seem's real small to me?Or would the nail's and shrimp help calm him down?Bless his heart he is starting to get on my nerves.lol.

 

[BettyM]

BTT.....

 

[phlawed]

I have 3 Tiger Barb's and 1 Kissing Gourami,1 Pocasutmous sp?{black sucking fish}1 Dragon fish{that my best friend just brought me} .All of this in a 10gl.And I have 3 large ghost shrimp and 3 black mystery snail's in a 1 gl tank.I was woundering if I can put the 3 shrimp and snail's in the 10 gl?Should I take the aggresive tiger and put him in the 1 gl?That seem's real small to me?Or would the nail's and shrimp help calm him down?Bless his heart he is starting to get on my nerves.lol.

hope your best friend buys you a new tank for that dragon as well all of your fish are going to need a bigger tank. Your 3 barbs alone are the tank limit on that tank unfortunatly. And even then, when adult they will need bigger. The thing that sucks about fishkeeping, we want all the fish but never have the space But, dont worry, we all started somewhere. do you have plans for a bigger tank in the near future? from your layout, I would say atleast a 30+g for the barbs and gourami's. When adults they will need around 55+g tank. Both of those fish are schooling fish and need to be kept in groups of no less than six. Like said above, with barbs i would also say minimum is 8 to reduce nipping. I have also found albino's to be a bit less nippy so might want to mix some albino tiger barbs in with them if you get a new tank. But overall, you either need a new tank to house these fish or expect some deaths in the near future from stress. I dont know the dragon fish real well, but I do know they will eat any fish they can fit in there mouths and believe they can become somewhat aggressive when adults and quite large as well.