Lots Of Split Tails... Are They Being Bullied?

[cjpf]

Hey guys.. So I have a 55 Gallon aquarium with 2 filters. An Aqueon 75 and a 30. I have 5 tiger barbs (fairly young) and 2 (older) albino tiger barbs, a rainbow shark, 3 mollies, 2 platies, 2 dwarf gouramies, 1 opaline gourami and 6 danios. I recently (4 days ago) introduced 3 colombian tetras to the tank.. However, now the opaline gourami stays in one place and one of the mollies has the tail split in two. One of the tetras has kind of a ragged dorsal fin. Can this be due to the stress of adding the new fish? or is it likely that they are being bullied by one of the other fish? I have been doing a lot of water changes (1 daily for a month now). the ammonia levels are at 0.10, nitrites at 0 and nitrates a little high between 40 and 80. Icant do much about the nitrates because the water from the tap comes with nitrate levels of around 25!!!! I have a lot of plants, though most are still small, in order to help control the nitrates.

 

[Gilli]

My bet is the tiger barbs - not really good for a community tank and notorious for fin nipping. you really need a much larger group for them to keep the fisticuffs amongst themselves.

 

[cjpf]

Thank you for the reply. Do you think that taking the Colombian Tetras to a different tank , and adding 2 barbs would help a bit?

 

[tomtomtom1230]

definitely

 

[cjpf]

Thank you! I shall do that then. I might move them to a 20 G aquarium.. Any suggestions on suitable tank mates? I was planning on adding at least 2 more colombian tetras to create reasonably sized school of them.

 

[Dazzler666]

I have 4 green & 4 striped tigers in my 120 along with lemon & beacon tetras and harlequin rasboras and touch woud, I've had no problems so far. The tigers bully each other and my beacon tears bully everything else!!! .
Although my understanding is the more tigers the better. Have also had mollies attacking fish so I wouldn't just ASSUME it's the tigers just because if their reputation. Have you had issues with the tigers attacking your fish previously?
Hope you get it sorted.

 

[cjpf]

Well, I know the Colombian tetras like chasing other fish too. But to answer your question, I haven't really had a bad experience with the barbs. Up until the addition of the tetras, they were all fine. I have noticed that the tail of the molly is healing nicely, but the tetra is still bad. I am thinking I will add 3 green tiger barbs.

 

[OldMan47]

I think that Gilli has the right answer. Get those darned tigers out of an otherwise peaceful tank or accept the damages. They are too aggressive for most tanks.