Aggressive Tiger Barb

[sparky2]

I am new to tropical fish.
I recently bought 2 Tiger Barbs and 2 Platies.
One of my Tiger barbs seems to be very aggressive towards the other fish. Please Help

 

[Castellop123]

Tiger Barbs are known trouble-makers and will nip at other fishes fins when they get the chance... A good way to stop them from doing this is to have a shoal of them... This way, the Tiger Barbs will be semi - aggressive within their group only... The other fish will be ignored...

A shoal of 6+ should be sufficent... If bullying the Tiger Barbs still distress the other fish, either move them to another tank or simply buy more TB's...

 

[Gazoo]

Welcome to TFF sparky2.

What size tank are they in? A larger group of one fish type always look nice but you may be limited on the amount you can keep depending on the size of your tank.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Corin's covered most of it already. The reason for this aggression is that hierarchy within the group is really important to tiger barbs. If you have a big group you will see them constantly measuring up to each other, having pushing contests and generally trying to establish who is the top dog. Of course if you only have a pair, this means one poor fish, the weaker one, is going to get it in the neck all the time. In this situation fin-nipping and aggression often seems to extend to other species too. The top dog can't stop bullying, it's his instinct to work frantically to keep on top, he can't stop and say to himself, hang on, I don't need to do this. Also, because tanks are small, the inferior fish can't put a stop to the situation by swimming away, so they're stuck in this vicious circle. In a big enough group, the top dog can exercise his needs on different fish of his own species, so the results aren't usually that disastrous.

The other problem is they are very boisterous and active fish, so they need a lot of room; they do tend to get more aggressive if space is confined. Plus it is more difficult for other fish to get away.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Agreed. You need a minimum of a 24" long tank, ideally 36" to keep tiger barbs as they are very active fish. They are also happier in a very busy tank with lots of planting, rocks, wood and other bits so they can establish terratories and pecking order. They are much better in bigger groups as they tend then to bug each other then rather than pick on one or two other fish in your tank 8+ ideally. Avoid putting them with any long finned species, guppies particularly or any other species described as "peaceful community fish." That said they are great little fish as long as you are prepared to put the effort in.

 

[bennett418]

I have 30 inch tank and 4 barbs they are fine, very playful and ignore other fish...