Tiger Barbs keep dying!

[Danieow]

Hello everyone,

I'm the one who joined the other day thinking my fish had ich. Tuns out what I was looking at wasn't Ich but oddly enough it sprang up the next day They're being treated and everyone's doing absolutely fine, except the tiger bards. I am almost positive that they aren't dying from Ich, I've read that it does Not kill so fast (2 days). I've never owned Tiger barbs before and I've had my group of 6 for about 1 1/2 weeks. (2 green tigers, 2 albino, and 2 regular). Now within 2 days there's only 2 regulars and 1 albino left. I've seen these fish fighting a lot amongst themselves but it never seemed serious enough to kill most of the time. Also oddly one of the baby regular barbs had the skin above his gill ripped off but he is healthier than everyone. I've heard that Tiger Barbs establish a pecking order amongst themselves, is this what is happening? Please help!

Danie

 

[afireinside]

hm, did they look sorta like a pine cone (gils sorta puff out)? cause if they did, they probably have dropsy. what u should do is quarentine those fish for a while.

 

[Danieow]

I looked up Dropsy but my fish don't have any of those syptoms. The 2 barbs that died while I was home just started swimming slower and starting turning upside down. I figured they just fought each other to exhaustion? I looked up fish deseases but without luck, I am going to quarenteen the barbs anyway just incase.

 

[WILDER]

What was the ph of the lfs to your tank, and how long did you climatise them for.

 

[Danieow]

The PH is around 7.6, I've been trying to get it down to 7.0 like many people suggest, I'm not sure what you mean by climatise but I had the barbs in the newbie tank (where I put all new fishies until I know they're healthy), unfortunately they fought too much in there since it's pretty small and they were moved to the regular tank after only two days. For the last week the fights were slim to none but have picked up again lately. Now with only 3 barbs left they seem to be finally getting along, 2 of them are only young babies, will they fight more when they get older?

 

[digital_run]

Ph wouldnt be the problem...Tiger barbs are extremely sensitive to high Nitrate/Nitrite....What are your readings for those..aswell as Amonia...These are must knows for Tiger barbs...I bet they are hanging fairly still with their heads pointed down. Tigers (most barbs in general) thrive in tanks that recieve frequent small water changes. If you don't have a test kit capable of giving you those readings then i would invest.

Tiger barbs will flair out all their fins, lip lock together and spin in a circle...This is perfectly normal and barely ever results in injuries. You will need to boost up their numbers once you get things stable and under control...3 just won't cut it and atleast one of them is going to be miserable.

If you haven't seen this already it may help
Tiger Barbs

Ðigital_run

 

[Danieow]

Ack well I think I have my answer. My barbs do hang nose down in the water. I am right now looking for ways to bring the nitrite level down. I only have a PH tester, do any of your know of a device that can check everything? My local pet shop sells devices ment for specific tests only. If the nitrites are brought down in time will my barbs be ok, or will high nitrites have damaged them permantely?

 

[digital_run]

The best thing to do right now is water changes...Use a gravel vac and make sure you keep your filter "properly" clean. Do 30% everyday and defiantely look into a test kit...There are usually Master kits which will test Nitrate/Amonia/ph/kh etc....and you might have to buy a Nitrite kit seperately, but it is well worth it.

Tiger barbs are like an early warning system that says something is wrong with your tank...When they are hanging pointed down its them feeling poor water conditions, they should be fairly active and curious especially if its a new pack.

Happy Tigers = Frequent small water changes.

Hope i helped a bit

Digital...


p.s - what size tank do you have for them?

 

[Danieow]

Yup you've been a big help. Thank you! I've changed about 20% of the water and I will do another small water change tommorrow. I am also going to the pet store to get a SeaChem Ammonia Alert so that I'll know when the ammonia and nitrites are dropping. Once they do I'll get 3 more tiger barbs so that the group stays happy. Also I have a 15 Gallon (I plan to get a bigger one but I am moving soon so am going to wait), I have the 3 barbs, 5 gouramis (honey and dwarf) and 2 clown loaches.

 

[digital_run]

Aslong as you keep the water changes frequent until your tank becomes stable you should be ok....As a general rule most don't usually agree with Gouramis&Tiger kept together....The reason being that gouramis are slow moving and have long fins which are sometimes just a little to appealing to tigers and they can form a habit of nipping at them.

I'm not an expert on clown loaches...but this will give you a general idea of what you'll need if you want to keep them long term.
Clown Loaches

Good luck

Digital