Tiger Barb Lost His Tail

[gwendolyn.wallace]

I'm new to this forum. Not new to tropical fish, but I am new to the more complex tropical fish. I've kept goldfish, and danios, tetras, and guppies, etc. for years. Recently, we got a 55 gallon tank and decided we wanted to go a little more complex. So we went to a "fish farm" and relied on the information given by the "specialists" there. Our tank has been set up for about 2 months, and we added fish slowly.

The first fish we had was a blood parrot cichlid and an albino bichir. They got along fine, but since the blood parrot was always hiding, it was reccomended that we get "dither" fish. The guy said that tiger barbs would be good and would be ok in our tank. So we got 3 tiger barbs. It worked perfectly. The blood parrot is now active and out and about. Our bichir is more active than most, I think. He rarely stays at the bottom and is always swimming around. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks, and today, the bichir attacked a tiger barb. Got him by the tail. We heard the thrashing and managed to seperate them by using the net and scaring the bichir off of the tiger barb. But now the tiger barb has no tail.

I took the barb out of the tank and put him in our guppy tank. At first he just laid sideways at the top and we thought he was going to die for sure. But a few hours later, he's swimming around and exploring the new tank. (So far, he's leaving the guppies alone, and he can't swim very fast at the moment so I'm not real worried about the guppies yet.)

So what do I do? Will his tail grow back? Will he die? And what about the other tiger barbs in the tank? The bichir had just been scavenging and eating algea pellets, so we went and bought some bloodworms which he devoured like crazy. We're hoping that if we keep him well fed with those maybe he'll leave the other tiger barbs alone. Anyway, I'm worried about this little tiger barb. What should I do now?

 

[blitztidus]

Always keep your fish like that well fed so they don't eat other fish. As for the barb, I would add a little bit of salt, it helps heal thing faster, as for its tail, it will grow, but will take time.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I believe tiger barbs are part of the scaless fish group, so adding aquarium salt would probably do more harm than good. The best and often most commonly used method of encouraging good healthy growth from physical injurys is often to add a med called Melafix to the water- this helps prevent secondary infections from setting into the wounds and encourages good healthy growth, the tail should grow back though if the barb survives.

As far as i'm aware, bichirs are predatory fish and most fish that are 2inches or smaller will be a target, no doubt you will start seeing the other barbs go missing sooner or later- personally i would rehome the barbs or the bichir or both to prevent this from happening again as it most likely will do now the bichir has realised the barbs are tasty. Tiger barbs should ideally be kept in groups of 7+ as they are agressive nippy fish, that in too smaller numbers, will often harrass each other too much- the more you have, the more it helps disperse the agression and prevent any one barb getting picked on too much .
I'm no expert on blood parrots, although as far as i'm aware they are quite agressive fish by nature and their tank mates need to be chosen carefully, so you would probably be best to do a thread in more of the other appropriate sections of the forum to find out more about their care and stocking .

 

[Anthony!]

You should absoultely retank the bichir, or the barbs. I keep bichirs, and they Don't like little fish,.. well, actually they do, but they end up . Find either a good new tank for the bichir or a new home for him. He will not stop picking off barbs as the bichir will basically only keep growing bigger, eventually to about 12' on average, depending on what type of bichir. Some grow larger, some are smaller. But, unless you think those tigers will be good "feeders", and that's all you care about them, the bichir will just get a bigger size, along with a "healthier" appetite. Rehome it!!

 

[FreshwaterFishie]

He will not stop picking off barbs as the bichir will basically only keep growing bigger, eventually to about 12' on average, depending on what type of bichir.

Did you mean 12 inches not feet.
I agree with Tokis-Phoenix, Melafix is probably the best thing for healing his tail. The tail will grow back and he shoudn't die if it does not get infected.

 

[Trance2006]

I've got scales on my tiger barbs unless you have a whole new species please tell...