Tiger Barb Help

[gto_cowgirl]

I am new to taking care of fish. My first fish experience was with angels and i read boards and learned a lot mostly just on angels. I have been trying to find as much information on green tiger barbs or regular tiger barbs as i could so i knew how to treat problems and take care of them correctly.

Anyway I have a 29 gallon tank that is fully cycled with 9 Green Tiger Barbs, red tailed shark and a bristlenose pleco. They were eating fine. Last weekend i noticed one of the green tiger barbs had white spots similar to salt so i figured it had ich (I had 10 at first) When treating angels i know they can handle high heat and salt and since thats what kills ich naturally i decided to try that with tiger barbs. I added 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons and turned the heat up to 89 and turned the lights off to help the ich not reproduce.

After a few days i noticed they were not eating as much anymore so i turn on the light to find that their colors have faded badly. I figured i overheated them so i turn the heater down to 85 and do an emergency water change with water only slightly cooler, didn't want to give them temp shock. They are hiding like mad under the smallest of leaves so i decide to turn the light off to help them cope with the stress. The next day one of my tiger barbs died, i think it was the one with ich. That night as soon as i turned the lights off they went flying all over the place without a worry in the world. The next morning i turn the lights back on and they are all hiding like mad again. They are now eating fine again but still hide whenever i turn the lights on and come out to play when i turn the lights off. I don't know what to do to help them. My light is the one that came with the tank. Oh and by the way I have slowly lowered the heat down to 79 because i read thats the temp tiger barbs like.

Does anyone have any advice or any websites with tiger barb information that could help me out.

 

[Moe]

There have been many post on this forum with the same complaint. Do a forum search using tiger barbs as the keyword. A lot of people had problems with their tigers not liking the light. One idea is to turn on all the lights in the room before turning on the light to get them used to the light gradually. You should also provide them with places to hide if they want to get out of the light. Hopefully in time they will get used to the light.
If any of your fish show signs of ich I would treat with an ich medication. You should not put salt in the tank with a bristlenose pleco. Plecos cannot tolerate salt.

What size is your tank and do you know the water parameters?

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Earlier i mentioned it was a 29 gallon tank and its cycled. I have been testing and all the nitrite, ammonia are zero and the nitrates are low. Also the temp is 79. The ph is around 8.0 and the water is hard to very hard.

Okay i didn't know that i will look around for those posts then. I know corys cannot handle the salt but plecos can. I have used salt several times up to 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons and there has been no problems. But i have heard if you go beyond that then it will cause problems.

Can you tell me the highest temp a tiger barb can handle? I don't want to use ich medication right away. Ich medication destroys your biological filter which takes weeks to get back and in the mean time you risk your fish to ammonia and nitrites. I have treated ich succesfully with just raising temp, lights off and added salt. Also, medication stresses your fish out even more. Therefore, i do not want to try medication unless its last resort.

 

[Lateral Line]

Firstly, raising the temperature does not kill the Ich parasites, what it does is increases speed at which they complete their life cycle.

Decent quality Ich medicines will not harm bacteria. Ich is not caused by bacteria, no need to add an anti-bacterial to combat Ich.

89 is HIGH. Typically, barbs do fine at 75.

As for their behaviour - I guess they are stressed. At 89 the Oxygen content of the water is lowered substantially and their metabolism will have been upset. I'd get them into sensible conditions and give them a chance to settle down. It's not just medicines that stress out your fish!

 

[BlackWolf0503]

My Tigers had a bad case of ich which went into fungus. I had heard to do the same--raise temp add salt & I used meds. the Oxygen got so low from that combo I almost suficated them. I added a air stone & pump. I got that a little late & unfortuently fungus got them one by one.

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Hmm, yeah i forgot about how heat lowers oxygen. I do have a AquaClear filter and a castle that hooks up to a pump and blows out bubbles constantly. So i guess i figured that was enough oxygen.

Does anyone know a good standard for oxygen when raising temp and does the aquarium size differ?

I didn't know ich turns into fungus. Is that what happens if you don't treat ich? I need to look at my tiger barbs to see if they still have ich and possibly will just treat with medicine since i don't want to overheat them again. I was just very worried about losing the biological system and risking ammonia or nitrite levels. But I'm still quiet new to fish and didn't know there was some medicines that affect the system and some that don't.

I tried searching the board for posts about the light issue and i found one posts, there was so many that it was hard to search through. Does anyone know any good links to posts or just good links? When i first started out caring for fish i read everything i could on the certain kind of fish and several tropical fish books. I'm new to tiger barbs and i can't seem to find much info about them.

Thanks everyone for replies.

 

[Moe]

I've read that tiger barbs are very sensitive to nitrite but I could not find the page where I read that, but it said at the first signs of nitrite in the water tiger barbs will point down. This is something tiger barbs do sometimes anyway. Sometimes they point down at night or right after eating, but if they are pointing down for long periods of time there is something wrong. Just something to keep in mind when you are watching them. They also "fight" by butting their heads together and spinning around each other. This is something they do to establish dominance. I don't think anyone ever gets hurt. If you wanted a bit of variety in your tank you could swap some of the green ones for albino and regular tiger barbs. They are all the same fish and will school together. They will nip anything with long fins like guppies or angels. I got rid of mine (6) because they nipped everything. They took a huge chunk out of the dorsal fin of a cory cat. I finally took them back to LFS. I think an all barb tank would be a lot of fun. If you want to add some smaller fish you could try ruby barbs or red glass barbs if you can find them. Cherry barbs are beautiful but get to be about 6 in.
Here is a link with some info on tiger barbs. Good luck.
http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile20.html

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Thanks. This is an all Green tiger barb tank. I have 1 red tailed shark and 1 pleco but thats about it. I haven't seen any problems except that sometimes the shark will chase some of the barbs when he gets hungry, i been trying to feed them more but not to much.

Saturday I went out and bought $40 worth of plants which included 1 (36" leafy plant to give extra shade with the excess plant floating at the top and 1 (jumbo 12" amazon plant which spreads and gives a lot of shade), and other big varities of plants. Got home and washed off all the plants in hot water then turned on the light and planted all the plants nicely in the 29 gallon.

As soon as I was done, all the green tiger barbs begin to swim around and explore. They were no longer "huddling" under small plants but yet swimming around all over the place near the bottom. Every once in a while they would get enough courage to swim around the top but quickly swim back down to the bottom. They were fine for several hours until it was getting dark then some of the barbs started to "huddle" again but I think it was because they were not use to long periods of light.

When they "huddle" depending on where they are at, sometimes they may point down especially when they are sleeping but like i said. This tank has been cycled for quiet a while and been tested with no ammonia, nitrites. That was the first thing i did.

I have noticed that head butting behavoir but it never looked like anyone was getting hurt, i figured they were playing around. I think they will be fine. They are eating great and starting to swim around now with all of the new plants.

I have a question about one thing. Some of my tiger barbs aren't completely green. I mean there are like small patches of missing green. Do all green tiger barbs grow in all their green or is this something to do with the way they may have been raised and it will never come in? I was just wondering as i like to see fully green tiger barbs excluding their orange mouth, nose and fins.

Also, are there any specific types of treats to give and not to give to tiger barbs? I have a big variety of brine shrimp, shrimp pellets, bloodworms, water fleas, and complete tetra flakes with 4 different types of flake food. Should i not give some of these foods to the tiger barbs or will they love it all? Also on an occasion i give them spinach leaves which they seem to love. Is that okay?

 

[kuter]

According to the directions on the meds I have used for ich or fungus, you are suppose to remove the carbon from your filter but not the floss, or bio-wheel if your filter uses one. Do not turn off the filter. The reason for this is that the carbon will filter and negate the meds!

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Thank anyway but I already knew that. Thats not what i was saying about meds. Some meds can destroy the beneficial bacteria. Therefore that would risk the ammonia or nitrites raising.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>>
Do all green tiger barbs grow in all their green or is this something to do with the way they may have been raised and it will never come in?
<<<

"Green" tiger barbs are not a naturally occuring fish. There have always been a few tigers which had the odd dark scale in the wrong places between the stripes. What people did was selectively bred these to produce progressively more and more of these "faults" until they were basically covered with dark scales.

It is unlikely that scales which do not have pigment now will acquire it.

 

[gto_cowgirl]

Oh! I didn't know that. I might exchange the few tiger barbs then because it bothers me to see some of them not fully green. And i want to do it before they become adult as to where it is harder to find tiger barbs their own size.