Green Tiger Barbs Feeding Problem

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waterfairie

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Hello everyone I hope youā€™re all well. I have just joined and itā€™s about time!

I have some green tigers in with five banded barbs. I feed them a mixture of flakes pellets and blood worm through the week and tend to feed them once a day at the most..... I have cut right down because been having some problems with finrot and white spot/ ICH over the year Iā€™ve been keeping them. Not only that but especially recently I canā€™t seem to feed them without having several of my green tigers getting a swim bladder issue/ digestion problems until it usually passes the next day. But they really struggle and I hate seeing that but seems to happen now every time I feed them. I have been soaking the food until it sinks before feeding. The water quality and temperature should be good 80l tank on 24 degrees, 6 greens 7 banded with W changes, two filters and plants etc I am wondering if i still feed them too much but i have cut it right down. I want to make sure the banded get some too as the greens are so fast like parahnas! Anyone else had this problem please?

Thank you for any help
 
Any possibilty of a video or a photo of the fish? Do they poo at all? Do their bellies swell up? You might just feed the too much, cut the feeding for once a day. However for now I'd recommend you giving them thawed and deshelled peas or daphnia and/or fast them for 3 days.
 
Any possibilty of a video or a photo of the fish? Do they poo at all? Do their bellies swell up? You might just feed the too much, cut the feeding for once a day. However for now I'd recommend you giving them thawed and deshelled peas or daphnia and/or fast them for 3 days.
Hi there thank you for your response
Their behaviour is quite normal aside from some of them suffering after feeding. Theyā€™re busy and lively not acting stressed. I believe they do poop but havenā€™t actually been watching this closely so maybe I need to check. They donā€™t look bloated some of them havenā€™t grown much and could do with some growth and weight. I have tried peas before and they love them! Think the peas have done the same though Only time they seem to be better for a day or so is when I have starved them for three days poor little things. I have considered if I need to separate the greens to another tank as theyā€™re so much faster than the banded. Then I could feed a lot less and not worry about banded. My husband would go crazy as our home has enough tanks already! I have really got stuck with this
 
It is not a swim bladder problem and does not need treating with any medications, so don't worry about treating it.

The problem is caused by the fish taking in air when they eat dry food from the surface. Basically the fish gulp at the flake food on the surface and swallow air with the food. The air ends up in their intestine and causes them to float about. The air takes about 24 hours to pass through them, at which time they fart it out and can swim normally again. Yes fish fart.

If you wet the flake it will sink and they can eat it without ingesting air. Or use more frozen (but defrosted) or live foods and less flake.
 
It is not a swim bladder problem and does not need treating with any medications, so don't worry about treating it.

The problem is caused by the fish taking in air when they eat dry food from the surface. Basically the fish gulp at the flake food on the surface and swallow air with the food. The air ends up in their intestine and causes them to float about. The air takes about 24 hours to pass through them, at which time they fart it out and can swim normally again. Yes fish fart.

If you wet the flake it will sink and they can eat it without ingesting air. Or use more frozen (but defrosted) or live foods and less flake.
Hi Colin
Thanks for your response
Yes thanks as I said earlier I do soak the food as i realised the gulping air thing with all my fish beforehand. It still happens even if i leave the food soaking for ages before feeding. Maybe I do need to feed them more blood worm and the like . Maybe they just donā€™t like the premium flake food pellets etc and they just want meat! They go for my fingers! Itā€™s surprising how strong their little nips are!
 
Pellets have a lot of air trapped in them from the manufacturing process and soaking pellets doesn't get rid of all the air.

Try feeding only frozen and or live foods for a week and see how they go. If it fixes the problem then add one type of dry food for a week and see how they do. If they float then that food is part of the problem. Then drop that food for a week while you feed a different dry food. You might find some dry food is fine and doesn't cause the problem but other dry foods do.
 
Hi Colin
Thanks for your response
Yes thanks as I said earlier I do soak the food as i realised the gulping air thing with all my fish beforehand. It still happens even if i leave the food soaking for ages before feeding. Maybe I do need to feed them more blood worm and the like . Maybe they just donā€™t like the premium flake food pellets etc and they just want meat! They go for my fingers! Itā€™s surprising how strong their little nips are!
Pellets have a lot of air trapped in them from the manufacturing process and soaking pellets doesn't get rid of all the air.

Try feeding only frozen and or live foods for a week and see how they go. If it fixes the problem then add one type of dry food for a week and see how they do. If they float then that food is part of the problem. Then drop that food for a week while you feed a different dry food. You might find some dry food is fine and doesn't cause the problem but other dry foods do.
Thank you Colin.They are going to be very happy being fed bloodworm more although the same thing has happened after feeding blood worm and peas......I canā€™t seem to win! I will try cutting the amount down more and just feed without the flakes and pellets to see if that works.
 

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