Anyone witnessed this before.....?

[Rob_G]

....I have 5 gold barbs in my 190 litre tank along with gouramis, swordtails and guppies.

They have all lived peacefully together , and then, i bought a new male guppy and two female guppies. One female gold barb chased the new guppy to near death and ripped his tail fin. I removed him to my small breeder tank where i am sure he is going to die as he lays almost motionless.

The female guppies are left alone though. Strange i thought being a female barb doing the chasing. Does anyone have an explanation for this ?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[SirMinion]

Barbs are vicious, nippy & unpredictable... and nothing more than tropical goldfish.

I don't like barbs.

 

[sylvia]

In defense of the barbs (golden barbs are nice), how would you feel if I suddenly dropped another human in your home? I doubt you'd welcome him/her with open arms.
Your barb went after the male guppy in particular because I am certain his long tail made him a great nipping target and he won't have been as quick as the females. She probably doesn't feel there's room for any more little guppies and is one of the more dominant fish.
She may also be one of the lower ranking fish - I have seen this sort of thing happen when the fish lowest in a hierarchy attacks a new inhabitant because he/she doesn't normaly have anything to pick on and wants to have something lower ranking than him/her.

 

[aqtaquaman]

Barbs are known for their persistance.

 

[mwm]

cherry barbs are peaceful to

 

[Rob_G]

ok....more developments..........

the male barbs have started chasing the female barbs like mad non-stop. So i am thinking....perhaps the females released some hormones for spawning and thats what made them agressive towards the newly introduced male guppy and hence the chasing around now from the male barbs ?

I must point out that i have had these barbs for 9 months and this is the FIRST time i have seen them show any agression or chasing about of the females. They were juvenile when i got them and they have tripled in size. Could it be that they have only just reached maturity and this is the the cause of the change of behaviour ?

P.s.

The male guppy that i removed to 'safety' in my smaller tank that had two females in has dissapeared this morning. Could he have died and been eaten by the females guppies ?!

Many questions there...apologies,

Rob

 

[CyberTrip]

this may not be exactly on the subject but i just got a few tinfoil barbs and one of them is larger than the other two and it likes to chase the other two around the tank and nips at them. I do not see any sign of damage? Any idea? They also go nuts when I feed them food. They act like a group of trout at a hatchery.

 

[Opcn]

I can pretty much gaurauntee that it had nothing to do with sex hormones, Maybe the color however.

If the new guppies were a color that the barbs found offensive they might go after them. but it probably has more to do with the barbs feeling that there established territory is to small for them, let aloneothers.

 

[MXPX4318]

yeah well something triggers male gold barbs to get crazy about the female gold barbs every couple weeks as in my tank every couple weeks there will be a day when the males will go nuts and chase the females constantly and rub against them and nip at them. They've never gone after any other fish though just each other, including my ram with his nice long fins and everything in fact he chases them around every now and then. I love my gold barbs though so to you sirminion.

 

[ddm18]

I love my gold barbs though so to you sirminion.

I second that!