Tiger Barbs Fighting!?

[tameem]

Help! Today we noticed that the 12 tiger barbs unlike ever before, were all darting around like zebra danios. For the most part they have been schooling together, but today we noticed a lot of chasing going on! After observing, we noticed it was a handful of the tiger barbs that tend to have the darker rea nose that were doing the chasing. I tested the water, parameters are the same. Then we decided to put in a little food, but even while eating, chasing going on by the same few fish. We decided to remove the "aggressive" ones, and even while trying to net them, there were still chasing.

We removed a total of 5 tiger barbs we identified, all with a darker red/orange noise, and put them in a separate bowl. I have a total of 12.

What's going on here?? We have had the fish for more then two weeks now and they all seemed just fine

I have a 55 gallon tank, I just did a 25% water change yesterday. Im going through cycling. ammonia is .25ppm, which has not really changed, 0 nitrites.
I also have 3 cory cats, who were not at all involved in this and doing their own thing.

 

[xcharmanderx421]

Help! Today we noticed that the 12 tiger barbs unlike ever before, were all darting around like zebra danios. For the most part they have been schooling together, but today we noticed a lot of chasing going on! After observing, we noticed it was a handful of the tiger barbs that tend to have the darker rea nose that were doing the chasing. I tested the water, parameters are the same. Then we decided to put in a little food, but even while eating, chasing going on by the same few fish. We decided to remove the "aggressive" ones, and even while trying to net them, there were still chasing.

We removed a total of 5 tiger barbs we identified, all with a darker red/orange noise, and put them in a separate bowl. I have a total of 12.

What's going on here?? We have had the fish for more then two weeks now and they all seemed just fine

I have a 55 gallon tank, I just did a 25% water change yesterday. Im going through cycling. ammonia is .25ppm, which has not really changed, 0 nitrites.
I also have 3 cory cats, who were not at all involved in this and doing their own thing.

it's perfectly normal. By removing them you actually probably made it worse. The barbs are just fighting amongst each other for pack dominance. after a day or two they'll settle down. Just let them fight, they won't kill each other.

 

[tameem]

Thanks for your reply.

You have made all of us at ease, if you are correct. We never saw this before, and it didn't look like they were actually hurting each other, but boy 4 or 5 were chasing furiously - I was just amazed even when I was trying to net them, at every chance they got, they started again.
I went ahead and added the 4 aggressors back into the tank. I wonder how come they didnt do this earlier, or was it because they were new to the tank and only now feel completely secure and comfortable? they were still acclimating? I did buy them from LFS who had them for months in their tank.

I put them back in and they are going in and out of decorations and everything, going after each other, although it's the same ones doin gthe chasing

Does anyone else have any response?

 

[Gilli]

The ones with the red noses are mature males. When mature, male tiger barbs will show bright red noses, his dorsal fin will have a red line above the mainly black fin and his ventral fins will turn bright red. When in spawning condition or fighting for a higher “rank” in the shoal, the males stripes turn a slight metallic green colour. And the tips to his upper body scales turn almost black and shine bright orange in certain light.

The females however, keep their pale yellow noses (may turn slightly pale red at times, which makes it tricky to determine their sex in store). They only show a small area of red at the tip of the dorsal fins, and ventral fins will stay pale red. In females, their stripes stay black.

The behaviour may be sorting out the pecking order as already mentioned but could be they are ready for spawning . The male will franticly chase the female through plants, nipping at her anal and ventral fins, soon the female will allow him to catch up with her, he will force her against the plants and she will release 1 – 3 eggs, which the male will instantly fertilize. If they are fertile they will hatch in around 48 hours.