[BlueGlofish]

Hiya I'm new here and just registered.

Well I have a tiger barb problem. The 'tough guy' in the tank seems like he has fin rot. Then we realise the other barbs are chasing and nipping him when he's the one that does all the chasing and nipping. eventually one part of his tail fin was torn and it only escalated from there. Now his tail fin seemed to have shrunk by nipping and still getting chased. His anal fins torn and one of his sides fins too. Does seem to accept food but only eats some and goes into a 45degree angle position.

Tankmates 4 tiger barbs, 2 red wag platys, 1 sunburst platy, 2 blue platys, 2 blue and 2 red Glofish

Bit overstocked I must say only been a month since we started it but we don't have any quarantining methonds yet

EDIT I know tiger barbs are bad idea here but they don't really disturb the other fish surprisingly 0_0

 

[knuggs]

Sounds like there was a power shift amongst your fish. Try some pimafix which is all natural, it should help heal his fins. If possible isolate, but be careful doing so as it can cause more stress and send him over the edge. You should be fine not isolating him but the problem may persist with your fish unless they have gotten over it. Prolly just giving him a lil payback. I had a fish war happen in my tank one time with blue tetras and glo light tetras and it was crazy! Came home after work one day and 2 of the blues were dead and 4 of the glo lights were. Its crazy but fish do have there own hierarchy and society within a tank.

Welcome to TPT as well! You will find ALOT of great info and people on here. Im proud to be an American too!! God bless the USA!

 

[proaudio55]

You didn't mention the size tank here, but adding a couple 3-5 barbs more might help a lot. I've got about 10 tiger barbs and they all get along just fine, ignoring everyone else in the tank. My tetras are fine and my fire mouth chidlids with flowing fins and leisurely swimming habits don't get nipped.

The idea of a large shoal is so the aggression is spread around; with lots of fish, no single one will take the brunt of the chasing / nipping.

And yes, that 45 degree angle (head down) swimming position is normal for most T.B.'s ... I don't know why they do that, possibly from inbreeding(?) or deformed swim bladders ++shrug++

 

[CatB]

yeah, sounds like you need more barbs. they're really nippy unless in groups of 6-8+, pretty much as a rule.

EDIT: wait, you said you're a bit overstocked?
what size tank is this, what filter do you have?

 

[Kurious]

I am hoping to add a nice size school of Tiger Barbs to my 40g breeder. I had started adding Black Phantoms, but the ones I have just hang out and aren't very active. I had TBs as a kid and loved their activity. So if I need a largish school, but theories say only add a few at a time with a couple weeks between additions, how do you keep the first 3-4 TBs from wreaking havoc on the corys and tetras already there?

 

[Diana]

Fishless cycle the tank before you get the fish.

A properly done fishless cycle grows such a large bacteria population that you can add any reasonable stocking level of fish all at once when it is done.

 

[Kurious]

OK, Diana. Thanks for that bit of info. This is an established tank with some of the fish at least 5 years old. I've always been cautioned not to add too many fish at a time no matter what the level of "establishment", but nice to hear otherwise.