Boesmani Rainbow And Tiger Barbs

[Danbarb]

Hi there,

My first post - I have 4 tiger barbs, and 5 green tiger barbs. I know they can be nippy, and territorial but I previously only had issues when my friend decided to give me a few guppies. (Newbie mistake I know).

I removed the guppies and gave them to my LFS. My 180 litre tank currently has 2 platys, 3 adult yoyo loaches, 6 (young 1") bristlenoses, the 9 barbs I mentioned, 6 boesemani rainbowfish, and 6 black skirt tetras, 3 rummynose tetra (soon to go back to LFS, when I can catch those speedy fish!) My water parameters are reasonable with 20ppm nitrates, and 0 nitrites, PH 6.8 to 7.2 (mostly 7). Water change 30-40% a week, half RO, half tapwater with conditioner. It is a planted tank, running with an eheim 2215 filter.

A couple of tiger barbs seem to be acting a bit aggressively towards the boesemani's that are a new addition as of today, and am wondering if this is a pecking order being established. I had read on numerous sites that people have kept boesemani rainbowfish with tiger barbs without similar issues.

A couple of questions really. Am I overstocked? (which could be a reason for the aggressiveness I have read since the less dominant fish can't escape to an area where they are not considered a threat), and also has anyone else had problems with tiger barbs being especially aggressive towards rainbowfish?

I don't really want to get rid of my tiger barbs or my boesemani but if there is a problem then I will likely buy a 120 litre tank, cycle this, and then create a tiger barb species tank of some sort with my tiger barbs.

It's a bit weird, because my tiger barbs have been fairly placid towards the platys, black skirt tetra, and indeed the other inhabitants of my tank. (bar the long finned guppies of course)

Is it worth waiting for a few days to see if it settles down, or should I take action soon? There are no physical signs of stress or damage on the boesemanis.

 

[twodoctors]

Tiger barbs (mine at least) are very nosy fishes. I started with 12 tiger barbs and then added my rainbows. They were also nippy towards them for the first day (or 2) but then they were fine. They just want to show them who is boss. The barbs will calm down soon enough.

It looks like you have a lot of fishes in there. Without checking I think you are probably overstocked when they are all fully grown. Some people will say that you tank is too small for rainbowfish because they love their space. I can't possibly comment, but they are supposed to get to about 5" I think. There is a site call aq advisor (1 word) where you can check your stocking level.

Adrian

 

[Danbarb]

Thank-you for your reply it is very helpful, I see from your tank that you have barbs and rainbowfish and they are OK. Your tank is great by the way!

I am going to remove the black skirt tetras, and platys, and the 3 rummynose tetra as I have experienced some nitrate spikes which I think is probably the fact I just have too many fish. (another newbie mistake!). Do you have any suggestions for catching the rummynose tetras? I struggled for 30 minutes to try and catch them yesterday morning to take back to the LFS, but failed miserably as they are smarter than I am with the net!

I have noticed on occasions that my tiger barbs will try and nip my hand when I am adjusting the plants in the tank, can they actually do any damage to human skin? It freaks me a little bit haha.

I know I am probably right on the limits of acceptable tank size for the boesemani rainbowfish, especially 6 of them. I do plan to get a longer tank in a few months when they grow, and my aim is definitely a tank similar to yours as it is what I envisioned in my head when I was thinking of setting this up a few months back.

Also, another quick question I have this flourite substrate and I recently added some more (after rinsing with water + conditioner about 9 times) there was a lot of clouding and I am wondering if this can seriously affect the efficiency of the filter? Should I clean this out now the tank has settled? If so, is it best to leave the ceramic ring media in the water, and just rinse out the filter pads with tank water? I am hoping that stopping the filter for 20 minutes, and cleaning just the pads won't kill off the beneficial bacteria on the ceramic rings?

Thanks for the help

PS AQ advisor was a BIG help! I am overstocked and do not have enough filtration. I have a HOB filter ordered to add to my eheim to help with this, and obviously taking some fish back to the LFS will decrease my stocking level. It's so easy to get carried away, and a bit irresponsible on my behalf.

 

[twodoctors]

Disclaimer: I've only been fish keeping for 3 months so I'm no expert.

My barbs nip me as well. They are very cheeky fishes. Can't keep quite a few speices when you have them but they are a funny little group.

Nitrate rise is normal. Not sure what you mean by "spike". Obviously the more fishes you have the quicker the nitrate will go up and hence the more frequent the water change needs to be. If you have enough biomedia for the tank to keep the ammonia and nitrite level low(zero), then in my opinion you are not overstocked (provided you have enough room for them to swim in).

If it is nitrite spike then you may be having a "mini-cycle" where the bacteria colony is trying to catch up with the amount of ammonia/nitrite being produced. If that is the case then you'll need to do very regular water change (daily or other day) to keep levels down until things settle.

Bacteria don't die because you turn off the filter for 20 minutes. Water clouding could be due to other things like bacetria bloom etc. As I said I'm no expert in fish keeping. If you think it is the substrate then you can get something like AquaClear. Carbon filter may help as well.

Adrian

 

[Danbarb]

Day 2: One boeseman's rainbowfish (female) has some damage to her upper fin - She is looking a little stressed. As soon as I turned the lights on this morning the barbs went mental trying to attack every boeseman that was in their vicinity. Constantly trying to nip the fins. I'm pretty sure they see them as competition in some way, but it's rather incessant. They've been attacking my boeseman's rainbowfish for like over an hour now, almost constantly!

Setting up a Tiger Barb species tank with my tiger barbs is becoming more and more attractive!

I actually think my mistake was upsetting the balance of fish in the tank. Eg. Taking out a lot of fish, and replacing with a few fish. It's set the tiger barbs off on some sort of pecking order as if it were a fresh tank, and they seem to have taken a disliking especially to the boeseman's!

I'm going to order another tank anyway just in case, but I am hoping the barbs settle down in another day but obviously can't have any fish overly stressed or damaged as it's just a bit too cruel!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Bosemani Rainbowfish need at the very least a 4-foot tank, although I personally would not put them in anything smaller than a 5-foot long term (they are almost as active as my Barilius species), once they are over half size (~6cm). Given your Tiger Barbs are giving them grief, either promptly find the rainbows a larger tank or take them back ( or you could try and take back the Tiger barbs instead if you really want the Bosemanis and you are prepared to give them a bigger home once they are about half size, although this may not be easy to get a refund/credit for if you have had them a while).

 

[Danbarb]

Hi there,

I have decided to take the Boesemani back first thing tomorrow. It was a hard decision to make because I love both the tiger barbs and boeseman's rainbowfish. However, I think it was a mistake to put them in a 180 litre tank with the barbs in the first place. They are looking a little stressed, and annoyed at being harassed nearly all the time all day for the last 2 days. Am glad they will go back and hopefully go to a better home. Hopefully I can get some credit or do a swap of some sort. I've now taken a lot of fish back to them including two platys, guppies, and all sorts. I want to get back down to a reasonable level of fish for the tank I have, and after I remove the boeseman then I should have room for two or three fish with the current filtration and tank size I have.

I guess the rule is really research before you buy, and double check your tank can take the capacity of fish. Silly mistakes I know.

Thanks for all the advice from both of you guys, I hope that my LFS does some sort of exchange because the 6 boeseman were not cheap, and one of them is pretty messed up now from the attacks.

In the future when I get a larger tank, I'll choose more peaceful community fish as the Tiger Barbs have restricted my choices somewhat really which is a bit of a shame but they do have great personality.

Thanks

Dan

 

[Danbarb]

Just a quick update. Took them back to the LFS, and they gave me credit. Got 3 albino/gold barbs, 2 rams (cichlids but they cope well in PH 6-7 which my PH is), and 4 blue rainbowfish that are semi-aggressive. All fish are doing extremely well! I have harmony in the tank at last

Thanks for all the help from both of you, it's great that there are people like you around to give advise and to help me learn how to create a good ecosystem and environment for my tank.