Help my barbs (some more).

[kaxixi]

Hi guys,

Any idea why one (out of five) Tiger Barbs refuses to school with the others most of the time, and is usually hanging out in the top corners of the tank or underneath my plants? I don't think any of the other barbs is bullying him, although one of my Glowlight Danios continues to bully all the fish in the tank.

Parameters are fine (ammonia and nitrite at zero), temperature is stable, and I have gotten rid of any ich they had when I got 'em. The rest of the fish seem much happier than he is.

Thanks,

erez

P.S. Any chance the barbs will match this danio's aggression once they grow a bit?

 

[millym]

hi there,
dont have a definite answer for you..sorry.....but we have 3 stripey & 3 green tiger barbs & one of ours spends at least 20% of his time by himself hanging out in the corner of our tank (watching tv we like to think ) he's not bullied and swims/ schools with the rest of the gang the rest of the time and has just as many dominance fights as the others(you know the nose to nose spinning round thing they do) and seems to win as many of these fights as the others.... we know he has shown himself to be more timid than the others as when we had a major tank disaster a few weeks ago ( major leak ended up with all our 30+ fish- incl barbs in a hosp tank for 4 hrs while we stemmed the tide of a 150L leak & ran off to get another replacement tank) he seemed to take a lot longer than the others to recover - he basically hung out in one of our dark caves for days only occasionally popping out for food - we called him 'scaredy barb' but this was 3 weeks ago now & he is back to normal - spending most of his time with the gang, but he still as before seems to like more time by himself. maybe its just a personality thing!! esp if hes not being picked on. i know barbs like to be in at least a group of 6 but as yours is not being picked on maybe he just likes his own space

 

[drobbins27]

I have a Silver Dollar like this. Is this Barb any smaller than the others?

 

[kaxixi]

No--he's one of the original three, which means he's bigger than the other barbs. And maybe its just me, but he seems emaciated. Today when I fed, he seemed to swim about very slowly, finally finding a flake or two to munch on, then 'hobbling' back to the corner to swim head down. He seems to swim crooked.

I was thinking of purchasing another barb or two--but after losing a barb and two oto's last week, I was a bit wary (and discouraged). I really don't want to find him floating tomorrow morning

erez

 

[nicklfire]

dont worry dude,
i have a pack of 6 tiger barbs and there's always a stray,
just think of a pack of wolves there's always a wolf in a pack that's the "out" but same as the pack of wolves a new fish will be put out of the pack. But if my thought is right or not who cares lol. he's not dead right i got the same problem so no worries

 

[kaxixi]

Actually, I'm not sure. I can't find him anywhere. He hasn't jumped out, he's not floating, and he's not on the bottom anywhere. Now I'm REALLY worried.

erez

 

[yellowsky]

out of curiousity, but will fish deliberately commit suicide?
and is this social problem something common to the species or does it reflect on other community fish...

 

[kaxixi]

I don't know about suicide, but my barb died Thanks for trying to help, guys--and hopefully we'll avoid any more unhappy endings.

erez