Bully Tiger Barb

[xWendyx]

I have a 12 gallon tank with 2 small Kuhli loaches and 3 guppies. There are two filters, one a Aqua One Clear View turning over 50 gallons per hour (it's kind of like a Aquaclear filter) and another just the normal fill-with-foam-rings sort (have no idea what it's called) and the water is 7.2 (the water from the tap is 8.4, I can't get it to stay stable any lower than 7.2).

Yesterday we bought 3 small (1.5cm) tiger barbs, on the advice that 3 would 'fit' and keeping a group of 3 would prevent them from nipping the guppies. Well, one of the tiger barbs has terrified and bullied the two other barbs so that one's hiding behind the internal filter and the other's hiding behind the Kuhli loaches' hidy-log.

The loaches and the guppies are being ignored by the bully barb and are swimming around normally (the loaches come out at around 7 at night but they pop out sporadically during the day), but every time the two bullied barbs come out, they're quickly chased by bully barb. The poor things' stripes have faded and they look pretty scared.

I have an empty 6.5 gallon tank (guestimate...it was a tank from Kmart) BUT it's empty. I was going to add a little water from my goldfish's tank (2 foot tank...again, not sure about the volume) and a little from my Siamese's Tank (4.5 gallons) and a little from his current tank so the water was 'cycled' and separate him.

Right? Wrong? Am I heading for a disaster? I don't normally have a problem with my fish, so this is a little perplexing.

Thak-you for your help!!

 

[Tempestuousfury]

to the forum. Introduce yourself in the newbie section.

Problems:
Too small a tank for barbs. They need more room to swim. This is causing more aggression, due to being cooped up.

Also, they have to be kept in groups of at least six so the aggression is spread out amongst more of them.

The loaches need a bigger tank.

This site shoudl help you out:
http/www.liveaquaria.com

HTH

 

[xWendyx]

Ugh, not good news!! But thank-you for the quick reply!!

Revised fish-keeping plan:

a) Remove Bully barb ASAP
B) Keep 3 guppies, 2 loaches and 2 barbs in 12 gallon and pray they last 2 weeks until my birthday
c) Ring rellies and friends and announce they're giving me $20 each for my b'day so I can get nice big tank (and 3 more barbs....)
d) Hit boyfriend over the head for buying the damn barbs in the first place...

Thank-you again and a Happy New Year!!!!

 

[discus1990]

LOL

 

[Leslie]

Removing 1 Barb won't do the trick as another one will step up and do the nipping. I agree you need a bigger tank for the Barbs but I would put them in a group of a minimum of 8. 10 would be better. This way they will keep the aggression among themselves for the most part.

 

[xWendyx]

I think you're right One of the two tiger's in the 12 gallon has chased the other behind the filter, but it still doesn't look as scared as it did when 'bully barb' was in there. It hasn't 'faded' and it's eating and occasionally seeing how safe 'open water' is.

Okay, now I'm trying to figure out the 'new tank'. It's going to be 2+ weeks away, but I'm going to try and hang onto all barbs until then (unless I see anything really blergh going on).

The max size tank I can go is 4 foot, which from my cruddy maths guestimates is 30 gallons. The two Kuhli loaches MUST remain, so I'm figuring between them and the three guppies, ten gallons is taken up (in the inch per gallon thing). I then have 20 gallons for Barbs - I was going to try seven? Or could I squeeze the eight in? (Does this make sense?)

If this isn't going to work, please let me know and I'll return the barbs.

 

[sylvia]

It'll work but get the new tank soon You can squeeze in the eighth barb IMO but you won't be able to keep much else. Luckily that's not too bad seeing as tiger barbs are nice fish for a species tank

 

[Tempestuousfury]

How long have you had the barbs? Your bf have the receipt? If so, return them and say you can't house them... Might work.

 

[xWendyx]

Thanks for your replies! No receipt, but the man will know who he is; when we bought the barbs, we took in a Bala shark I'd been given for Christmas and knew I couldn't house (although I was a bit iffy about giving it to someone who asked 'what's a Bala shark?' when he stocks Bala Sharks - under the name of 'Silver Sharks' ).

We're going to take two back, and leave the third in the 6.5 gallon. We used gravel and water from long-running tanks, and a filter that was being used in the 12 gallon and he doesn't seem to fazed (he's only 1.5cm).

After my b'day....new tank, move the loaches, get 7 more barbs and probably leave the 3 guppies in the 12 gallon.

Again, thank-you for your help! They are very pretty fish