New guy with Penguin fish/tiger barb problem

[SigEp]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie to this site but have been glancing through the topics for some time.

Here's my problem; I have a 29 gallon tank that's been up and running now for about 2 years. To this date, the only problem I had was early on when my son bought a large snail from Petsmart and though he's surprise the family by adding it to an all Red Eye Tetra tank. Snail brought ich into the tank and wiped everyone out.

What I've got in there now is one of the remaining Red Eye Tetras, 10 tiger barbs, on algae eater and the newest addition, 2 Penguin Tetras. There were originally 3 Penguin tetras but one decided to take the leap of faith and wasn't discovered until the next day.

Anyway, here's my concern; these Penguins are constantly chasing the tiger barbs and almost always have them pinned down to one of the corners. The two Penguins have established half of each side of the tank as their territories. Fortunatly they mostly stay on the top half and allow the barbs to feed but once feeding time is over, they're back to chasing them around and nipping at them.

Should I just give them back to the lfs or should I get a couple more Penguins?

Ideally, I'd like to get rid of the penguins and get a couple green tiger barbs but I can't seem to find a shop around me that carries them.

What advice can some of you out there give me?

Thanks in advance

 

[jams.alaskan]

If you are really not that happy with them and they are such a disruption to the tank why not try to take them back and give the other fish a try... You could ask the store if they could order some in for you...

ALASKA

 

[cometcattle]

I would have thought it would be tigers harassing the penguins.

BTW What kind of algae eater do you have?

I'm asking because I hope it's not a Chinese algae eater that so many stores sell for $1.99 or less, but fail to mention that as they age, they prefer the slime coating on your fish, over algae, and become very territorial.

Here's what they look like:

http/www.petresources.net/fish/cyprinid/gyr_aym.html

 

[SigEp]

cometcattle,

I also thought and feared the barbs would be the ones harassing the penguins.

As far as the algae eater goes, it IS the chinese algae eater. Thanks for pointing that out to me. As far as a replacement goes, what would you suggest. My concern is that I add salt to my tank, always have.

 

[cometcattle]

cometcattle,

I also thought and feared the barbs would be the ones harassing the penguins.

As far as the algae eater goes, it IS the chinese algae eater. Thanks for pointing that out to me. As far as a replacement goes, what would you suggest. My concern is that I add salt to my tank, always have.

Sorry, I never put salt in my tanks (except a pinch in 1g betta containers), so I really woudn't know what to suggest.

I do know that plecs, loaches, catfish, and anything without scales don't fair well with salt.

I've heard True Siamese Algea eaters (SAE) are great, but I've never kept one, nor do I know if they tolerate salt. They're not that easy to find.

The other similar fish is a Thai Flying Fox, but I don't believe they are great algea eaters, and they tend to get aggressive. Some stores will try to pass these off as SAEs.

 

[SigEp]

Just an update,

I've since traded the penguin fish for a couple (3) more red eye tetras. All are at peace now and the fish are utilizing the entire tank. With the penguin fish in there, they were all cowering either in the corners or on the very bottom.