Tiger barbs are getting more aggressive....

[drunkenmonkey]

I've had my tank (see profile for specifications) set up for about 3 months now, with very little problems. Recently I went on a two week vacation and entrusted my family with my fish **scary thought** The only thing they did wrong was over feed them (they didn't want to change the water, but I've changed the water several times bringing nitrates to reasonable levels). I noticed that one of my tiger barbs were missing... I later found the head under a piece of bog wood Now some of my tiger barbs seem much more aggressive than they did before. Last night I caught two fighting each other, almost like they were trying to lock jaws. Is this normal, or is something going wrong with my tank

 

[digital_run]

Hey drunken monkey...Tiger barbs will usually spin around face to face with their fins flarred out...this is a way of showing dominance in the group and is actually kinda cool to watch...but dont worry it never leads to damage or injury. As for the headless one...first off sorry to hear that ....I cant se your sig. So fill us in alittle...what size is your tank?...other fish?...how many barbs?....HIH

 

[drunkenmonkey]

thanks digital run. My tank is.... 32 gallons (Filter: Fluval 204 i think). 7 Tiger barbs, 5 Zebra danios, and 3 Otos.

 

[rvm]

Sounds like you have a good stock of Tigers then. I would possibly get another couple, but 7 should be OK. I have 8 in a 20g, and they do lock jaws every now and then, but like Digital_run said, it's pretty normal and theres never any damage to them. I'd probably say your tiger died of natural causes and then got pecked by the others and your family just didn't notice. Tigers will pick and eat dead fish, so that is probably the likely explanation!

 

[drunkenmonkey]

Thanks a lot digital run and rvm