Hi guys 
I'm new to the forum but not new to Fishkeeping as such. Rather, i'm new to keeping small fish such as Tetras and barbs. My usual choice would be Oscars, Firemouth Cichlids and even the occasional Red Devil. I thought i'd go for a change this time around and instead have decided to stock my tank with small tropicals. IT's a huge tank so i have plenty of space for them.
However, i'm not too informed on the behaviour of smaller fish and that's why i'm here now. I've already got a few different types of Fish in my tank but one species in particular is making me very curious, and that species is Tiger Barbs. Aside from them being very curious in terms of their environment, they also seem to display some really wacky behaviour. And that's what leads me to this question:
I've noticed that one of my Barbs is floating around looking half dead one minute, and then all of a sudden snapping back into swimming normally. While he's floating around, his fins are going like crazy and he genuinely looks like he's about to die. Then another of my Barbs will come and nudge him and he'll fire off towards them and chase them around. Then he goes back to floating again. He's floating vertically, to the point he's going so far he's rolling around a little, and i've seen his belly facing upwards a couple of times now. Every time though, he can quickly get back into the right position and begin swimming around as if nothing's wrong. Now, i'm not too clever when it comes to these Fish BUT i think it's obvious he ISN'T dying. Unless he's got some kind of intermittent death syndrome then i honestly do not think he's ill. Am i right or wrong in thinking it's just another quirk these gorgeous Fish have? Because i've seen the others do it too, just not to this extent.
Alongside the 4 Barbs i have, there's also a school of 10 Neon Tetras and 5 Platy's. I have sufficient filtration and my tank was cycled correctly.
Any help would be appreciated as i've moved on from monstrous Fish like Oscars onto tiny little fragile ones and it's both fascinates and terrifies me haha
I'm new to the forum but not new to Fishkeeping as such. Rather, i'm new to keeping small fish such as Tetras and barbs. My usual choice would be Oscars, Firemouth Cichlids and even the occasional Red Devil. I thought i'd go for a change this time around and instead have decided to stock my tank with small tropicals. IT's a huge tank so i have plenty of space for them.
However, i'm not too informed on the behaviour of smaller fish and that's why i'm here now. I've already got a few different types of Fish in my tank but one species in particular is making me very curious, and that species is Tiger Barbs. Aside from them being very curious in terms of their environment, they also seem to display some really wacky behaviour. And that's what leads me to this question:
I've noticed that one of my Barbs is floating around looking half dead one minute, and then all of a sudden snapping back into swimming normally. While he's floating around, his fins are going like crazy and he genuinely looks like he's about to die. Then another of my Barbs will come and nudge him and he'll fire off towards them and chase them around. Then he goes back to floating again. He's floating vertically, to the point he's going so far he's rolling around a little, and i've seen his belly facing upwards a couple of times now. Every time though, he can quickly get back into the right position and begin swimming around as if nothing's wrong. Now, i'm not too clever when it comes to these Fish BUT i think it's obvious he ISN'T dying. Unless he's got some kind of intermittent death syndrome then i honestly do not think he's ill. Am i right or wrong in thinking it's just another quirk these gorgeous Fish have? Because i've seen the others do it too, just not to this extent.
Alongside the 4 Barbs i have, there's also a school of 10 Neon Tetras and 5 Platy's. I have sufficient filtration and my tank was cycled correctly.
Any help would be appreciated as i've moved on from monstrous Fish like Oscars onto tiny little fragile ones and it's both fascinates and terrifies me haha
