Hi all,
First time posting here - hopefully its ok to post in this section. I have seen some interesting behavior from a group of Golden Barbs and am wondering if anyone has an explanation.
We recently brought a new 180L tank with the plan to slowly transfer our fish from our old 130L and add a few extra. We transferred some gavel from the old tank to bring over bacteria and cycled water from the old to the new. After about a week of running we moved our single Golden Barb survivor (8- 9 cm). All his friends have died of old age or bullying. She was very stressed from being on her own as you can imagine.
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: 0
PH: unknown
Once we had determined she was ok we purchased 6 new Golden Barbs to see if she would re join a group. In the new group there is 1 female and 5 very golden males. Immediately our old barb came to investigate her new friends. It was quite exciting for her! She nipped a few, and left quite a mark on above the new females mouth. I think old barb was just excited and perhaps asserting herself a little bit. She would race to push any wandering new barbs back to the group as soon as they strayed too far. Aggressive-ish nipping has now died down quite a lot. Do you think she thought these were her babies, or was she stating her place in the group?
On morning number two we noticed just after the lights went on a rather violent dance between the younger female and a male. At which point we realized that they were courting each other. This has carried on for quite a number of days - our males are all VERY red in the belly and seem to be constantly pushing the young female into the plants. Old barb has started to push our young female around a bit more over the last few days? Should we separate the females?
And one last observation - it was ver very strange. Big barb was vertical in the water - kind of shaking her tail/body. All of the new barbs were swimming around her and each taking a turn to come in and nip her flanks! This went on for a good 20 minutes. Old barb appears fine - very relaxed, the happiest and healthiest I have seen her in a long time. WHAT on earth were they doing?
Looking forward to your insight
First time posting here - hopefully its ok to post in this section. I have seen some interesting behavior from a group of Golden Barbs and am wondering if anyone has an explanation.
We recently brought a new 180L tank with the plan to slowly transfer our fish from our old 130L and add a few extra. We transferred some gavel from the old tank to bring over bacteria and cycled water from the old to the new. After about a week of running we moved our single Golden Barb survivor (8- 9 cm). All his friends have died of old age or bullying. She was very stressed from being on her own as you can imagine.
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: 0
PH: unknown
Once we had determined she was ok we purchased 6 new Golden Barbs to see if she would re join a group. In the new group there is 1 female and 5 very golden males. Immediately our old barb came to investigate her new friends. It was quite exciting for her! She nipped a few, and left quite a mark on above the new females mouth. I think old barb was just excited and perhaps asserting herself a little bit. She would race to push any wandering new barbs back to the group as soon as they strayed too far. Aggressive-ish nipping has now died down quite a lot. Do you think she thought these were her babies, or was she stating her place in the group?
On morning number two we noticed just after the lights went on a rather violent dance between the younger female and a male. At which point we realized that they were courting each other. This has carried on for quite a number of days - our males are all VERY red in the belly and seem to be constantly pushing the young female into the plants. Old barb has started to push our young female around a bit more over the last few days? Should we separate the females?
And one last observation - it was ver very strange. Big barb was vertical in the water - kind of shaking her tail/body. All of the new barbs were swimming around her and each taking a turn to come in and nip her flanks! This went on for a good 20 minutes. Old barb appears fine - very relaxed, the happiest and healthiest I have seen her in a long time. WHAT on earth were they doing?
Looking forward to your insight
