Tiger Barb Alpha

[thickasabrick]

Hey guys,

About two weeks ago I setup my first freshwater tank. It's 30 gallons, and I let it run for a few days to make sure that all of my levels are under control. I've been monitoring everything daily, and the levels are all solid. To help the tank cycle about a week ago, I decided to pick up six Tiger Barbs. The fish all look happy and healthy, eat in a feeding frenzy, and just seem all-around content.

There's only one issue. The biggest of the Tiger Barbs seems to be a complete jerk. He spends like 90% of his time chasing the other fish all over the tank. Like constantly, he rarely stops. It doesn't seem to be based on territory - he chases them no matter where they are in the tank. Is this natural? Should I be worried about it? Is there anything I can do about it?

 

[LetsBeFriends]

tiger barbs are a schooling fish and need a big group in order to make sure that no one barb gets to aggressive, try getting 1 or two more, six is a good number but maybe 1 or 2 more large tiger barbs will put this guy in check, otherwise it just may take him a while to settle down, but eventually he will stress the other fish out so much they will die.

 

[thickasabrick]

tiger barbs are a schooling fish and need a big group in order to make sure that no one barb gets to aggressive, try getting 1 or two more, six is a good number but maybe 1 or 2 more large tiger barbs will put this guy in check, otherwise it just may take him a while to settle down, but eventually he will stress the other fish out so much they will die.

I added two more (relatively) large male tiger barbs and things seem to be much more balanced now. Thanks for the advice!

 

[millym]

hi
we've had a 6 pack of tbs for over 5 years & have found that theres always one who is a bully or the 'king' barb. they go through periods when mr bully always seems to be squaring up for a fight & then it settles for a while, as long as you have enough tbs as said at least the aggression will be spread around the group so no individual will suffer too much. our original 6 pack were 5 boys & 1 girl and they were always scrapping, they died off sadly after about 4 years, our replacements seem to be 4 females & our 2 newest are males and there seems to be far far less scrapping than when we had the mostly male 6 pack
i suppose its a case of boys will be boys!!
brilliant fish id love to have more!

 

[LetsBeFriends]

im glad things worked out for you