Help Needed With Tiger Barb!

[rocknurworld2006]

Hi i have 4 tiger barbs in my aquarium (i did have 6 but 2 died), 3 of the tiger barbs are fine and no problems they are eating and swimming about together fine, the other one has not eating in a week and im starting to get worried, his behaviour has not changed at all.

why does he headstand to the other barbs and he sticks all fins out and flaps them to make them noticible and as the other barbs swim away he follows and does it again like he wants attention! he doesn't headstand on his own, only when he follows barbs to show them and doesn't do this to any other fish, and will repeat this procedure again and again. Is this any kind of barb breeding behaviour???

what do i do about his barb as im getting worried he is not eat in a at least a week, but still seems ok??
thanks for any help you can give

 

[gourami_fan]

First of all, do you know what caused your other 2 tiger barbs to die?

I've read many articles and I can't come to a conclusion to why tiger barbs do a headstand. Here are some of the reasons from articles that I've read about headstands:

• high nitrate/nitrite levels
• breeding behaviour
• simply just resting position
• over fed
• intestinal problems

Well from your description it might be a breeding behavior, but maybe its also high nitrite levels since your other 2 barbs died. Do you have any females around, or are they all males? What other fish are you keeping them with, your tank size, and water parameters?

Thats about all I can say for now since I don't really know the situation myself, but I have had a similar situation with my pearl gourami. Once my male pearl started developing his spawning colours and grew his extra long fins, he didnt eat for a week or so. After that he was back to normal.

 

[I Love my fishies]

The headstands are simply breeding behaviour even if there are no females in the tank he may do this out of instint or just show of to the other males/