Help - Odessa Barbs

[charlie_em]

We bought two odessa barbs at the weekend, and were assured by the guy in the shop they were peaceful fish. Since we put them in our tank they've been a total pain in the proverbial. They chase and nip at pretty much all the bigger fish (mollies, betta, catfish) and so far they've not caused any damage - until today. I came home to find the silver mollie had a big chunk missing from her tail, and she's seriously looking depressed. What can I do? I don't have another tank to isolate these bullies so does anyone have any advice - I'm worried I'll wake up tomorrow to a tank of dead fish...

Thanks in advance

Charlie

 

[GSD]

http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=1009

mabe this will help but as with all barbs i think they can nip if not in a big enough school although ive never owned them before so im not 100% sure

 

[charlie_em]

I'd never have bought them if I'd have known they were "semi-agressive".

I'm a total newbie fish keeper and have had some hard lessons to learn while setting up. Finally got a lovely tank up and running and now this.

Do shops normally take returns does anyone know?

 

[GSD]

what size tank is it and whats in it?

 

[MAM]

Typically stores will take back fish if you've only recently bought them. And if they say no, make them take them back, call them on it. They sold you fish that they assured you would work and quite obviously they told you wrong.

Sometimes, part of fishkeeping is learning the hard way unfortunately. It only goes to show you shouldn't always take what your lfs tells you as gospel. You have to do some research before you buy an unknown species.

 

[charlie_em]

The tank is really small - we have 10 neons, one catfish, four mollies, one siamese fighting fish and then these odessa's. It's 58 litres.

 

[fishwatcher]

I'd definitely get them out of there. If you have a large pitcher or something like that, you can siphon some tank water out into it and the put the fish in there. The store should take them back since they basically lied to you, whether they knew they were or not. I had that same thing happen to me, so don't feel bad.

 

[GSD]

yeah dont blame yourself i mean when i started out i had
a 10gal
with 7 mollies
and these catfish which grew HUGE and ate the mollies
a betta which was eaten also
and neons which dies becoz i forgot to cycle


so u got off lightly
but you learn from mistakes!
so i would take them back and see if they can take them,if not ask other shops mabe they will

how big is the other tank you mentioned
because it might be an idea to put the betta in it(siamest fighting fish)as they dont tend to do well in comunity tanks

 

[charlie_em]

Thanks guys, I think I'll take them out and put them in some tank water

Really appreciate the help and I'm glad to hear everyone seems to have problems at first !