Help With Tiger Barbs

[Crosby]

Hi, I was wondering if you can help me. On Sunday (after setting up my tank and leaving it to cycle) I bought my first fish, 5 tiger barbs. I put them in, followed all the instructions and at first they were fine. Then I noticed that one of them became territorial over the central rock, chasing away any barb that came near it. I didn't think much of it until the next morning...when I saw that he was now chasing all the fish into the top right hand corner, not allowing them out. I left it to see if things calmed down...but it really got worse, he sometimes went up there just to chase them. So I decided maybe I didn't get a big enough shoal, so on the pet shops advice yesterday I added 5 more tiger barbs. Things were calm for only a while then he bullied all those fish aswell...and now all nine are kept in the right hand corner whilst he has the rest of the tank to himself. I've noticed he's calmer when the lights are off but no-one seems to be challeging him, there''s only been one fight and that was over very quickly. I'm very worried about my other 9 fish, what do you recommend?

 

[screamingdonkey]

I wouldn't worry too much at this stage - tiger barbs like playing "I'm the boss, not you".
I'd leave it a few days and you'll probably find that one of the others will have a go at trying to be top dog (or top fish) and things will calm down. I've kept TBs for some time and find that the dominant fish changes periodically. It's not always the biggest fish that stake a claim on being top dog either.

If things don't settle down by the weekend, maybe try changing the decor around in the tank, so as to mix up his territory.

If he's really causing problems after two weeks, then maybe speak to the LFS about returning him???

 

[Crosby]

Thanks for the advice. Certainly he's not the biggest, actually he's one of the smallest though he is the most orange. The only thing I'm worried about is if it's possible for him to stress the other TBs to death though I suppose the more there are the less likely that is. I just hope he calms down. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[screamingdonkey]

Thanks for the advice

You're welcome

The only thing I'm worried about is if it's possible for him to stress the other TBs to death

It's very unlikely in my opinion.
They get rather a bad press by some, which I think is a bit unfair & over-egged.
They're just very busy, inquisitive fish - hence their tendency to nip fins of long/fancy finned fish.

... though I suppose the more there are the less likely that is. I just hope he calms down

True - the more there are in the shoal, the more dispersed the aggression is.
He should calm down, given time and will almost certainly be replaced as alpha male by another member of the shoal eventually.

 

[TigerLotus]

hi there,

You basically just wrote what I went through the past few weeks down to the right corner. I bought a group of 8 tiger barbs and put them in my 20 gallon QT to go into my 65. They were all fine at first, but then I started experiencing the same behavior you are. The dominate of the group was extremely aggressive and was basically terrorizing the group, but was fine with the lights off. He would back them up in the corner with their bellies against the tank wall. I let it go on for 2 weeks until I had enough and my other tigers I believe were at their breaking point. So what I did was take the overly aggressive one out and placed him in a small isolation for a few hours to see how the other fish would act. Completely different behavior. All the fish came off the tank wall swimming around. I did this 3 different times just to make sure it was for the better(I'm not big on taking fish back to the store unless completely necessary.) Each time the fish came off the tank wall and swam around, explored, and evenly pecked at each other.

I had the same mind set of "well their tiger barbs they'll work themselves out" but it didn't happen. I took the aggressive one back 2 days ago and I will never regret the decision. My suggestion is to take him out and see what happens. If their is a change in behavior in the other fish I would consider returning him so the other tigers can have some freedom and not get terrorized.

Good Luck

Tiger Lotus

 

[Iron Man]

flush it down the toilet where it belongs. help take the mean ones out of the gene pool

 

[Iron Man]

I was kidding!