Tiger Barbs Not Moving..

pson88

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I have recently purchased a 10 gallon tank just to put my tiger barbs and albino barbs in
i have 2 tiger barbs and 5 albino tiger barbs and 2 rosy barbs
i have adjusted the pH level to 7.0
the aquarium is about a week old
in addition i also added some organic waste control and cycle formula (supposedly containing dormant bacteria?)
the water is clear but im not sure why the tiger barbs aren't moving... they used to be so active
the rosy barbs are xtremely active
they are always the first one to the surface when im feeding them
the tiger and albino tigers are often not interested in eating... any idea why?
(oh and they used to be very active for the first few days..)
 
If you could post water stats such as ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite readings that would be great!!! :good:

Also what is the temperature you keep the water at?
How often do you perform water changes?

Most bacteria products you buy at the pet stores that are supposed to help add bacteria to your systems are already dead. If you think about it who knows when that product was actually made, then shipped in probably uncontrolable temperatures, then sat in a warehouse for a few weeks or months, and then finally shipped again to the pet store in uncontrolled conditions. That is my belief that by the time the customer actually purchases the item it is no longer a living bacteria. I once had bought a beneficial bacteria that I thought would help my tank, however after thinking about it I came to the conclusion that it was no longer "living beneficial bacteria".

Best of Luck to finding your problem out with your tank!! :nod: :nod:
 
I am not an expert and only trying to help.

I would say your tiger barbs do not feel safe the shoal of rosy barbs is right about 6.

If you know have the space then I would add the ratio of fish tk keep them in groups.

Hope this helps.

It could be that you are over feeding and the rosy barbs get the first share and the others just wait till it falls.

I have a tetra that i was convinced never ate until my hubby watched him and pointed out how clever he is. Why waste energy you might need for a chase later.
 
hmmm like fiskies said what are youe levels? Barbs prefer a PH level of 6-6.5 but a PH level of 7 shouldn't really be causing them any harm. It is odd for Barbs bot to be active...however when I got my Barbs it took them about a week to get comfortable in their new home and they were a little shy to start with but after a week of settleing in they became very active.
 
thanks everyone for the reply
i don't know much about ammonia or nitrate level...
i just did my first water change today (30%)
(its been about 1.5 weeks)
i don't have anything to test my ammonia/nitrate level..

@tetraqueen: i think u might be right about rosy barbs being quite aggressive but that doesn't explain why my albinos are also inactive :( isn't five enough ? i think theres something wrong with the water chemistry? should i give it a few more days?
 
Yes and Keep watch on here as sometimes the experts take a few days to reply with what maybe vital explanations.

It does help immensly to get the water chemistry right.

If the set up is new I will also add it takes a community a few weeks to settle, I am mad but I still insist fish are like us and sometimes we eat sometimes we don't. It also takes some to settle down more than others.

Hope they soon settle.
 
thanks everyone for the reply
i don't know much about ammonia or nitrate level...
i just did my first water change today (30%)
(its been about 1.5 weeks)
i don't have anything to test my ammonia/nitrate level..

@tetraqueen: i think u might be right about rosy barbs being quite aggressive but that doesn't explain why my albinos are also inactive :( isn't five enough ? i think theres something wrong with the water chemistry? should i give it a few more days?

Ok so I am guessing you didn't do a fishless cycle this is ok (just make sure if you ever set up a new tank again you do a fishless cycle :)) you just have to keep a close eye on everyone .... get a test kit and check your levels daily (do some research on cycling and this will explain what your levels should be and give you an understanding) you may have to do 10-15% water changes every day if your levels are really high ....

most people say the minimum number of Barbs you should have is 6 but it really depends on the fish for example sometimes you can have say 3 green tiger barb 3 reg barbs and 3 albinos and they will school together happily and wont need to be in individual groups of six but in other cases the different colours will only school together and need to be in group of at least 6 Tigers and at least 6 Greens and at least 6 Albino's etc (my green tiger barbs and normal tiger barbs school together)

Make sure you have lots of plants and areas for your albinos to hide if your rosy's are being aggressive ........ if your levels are out your fish could be suffering from ammonia or nitrite poisioning so they best thing for you do is get your levels right.....


I hope that all made sense :fun:

I will try to find the link on cycling and post it for you :)
 
Yep, could be that you havent enough Tiger Barbs, minimum of 6 as they are shoaling fish. You really should invest in a test kit. You need ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH. If you havent fishless cycled, your fish will be under enormous pressure from ammonia and nitrite, and i am sad to say, some may not make it through. I did a cycle with fish in and it was hard hard work. I was doing up to 4 water changes a DAY! You need to keep the ammonia and nitrite below 0.25 which involves water testing constantly and water changes according to your test results. For example, if your ammonia is reading 1, you would have to do a 75% water change to get it to 0.25, if it was 0.5 you would need to do a 50% water change. These huge water changes are stressfull for the fish but the ammonia and nitrite are much worse for them and my fish got used to the water changes. The good thing is you are not alone and any problems you encounter or concerns you have, you can post on here and get some really good advice. Good luck and i hope you get on ok. GRJ :good:
 
Its to late for all that fishless cycling, your doing a cycle with fish!! Go and get yourself a master test kit so you know your levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, stop feeding your fish and switch to once a day every 2-3 days!! your fish arnt eating because they will be under a lot of stress from high ammonia levels in your tank!! keep up the frequent water changes at least once or twice a day if you want your fish to survive!! Also how are you changing your PH?? Your PH will change during the cycling process so theres no point doing anything to that IMOBeat me 2 it GRJ!!! lol
 
I would have thought that the inactiveness of your barbs will be as a result of stress. This stress is most likely to be beeing caursed by the fact that the tank is still cycleing. When a tank is cycleing, there are large ammounts of ammonia, ammonium and nitrite in the water. All of these are products, produced by a filter and or fish, while the tank is cycleing, and ALL are toxic to fish, even in small quantities. What is effectively happening at the moment, is that your fish are slowly beeing poisoned. Obviously this is not good, and something needs to be done relitively quickly to prevent deaths. I belive that you are close to beeing overstocked, if you aren't already, and this will be adding to the problems. I will stress at this point that this is NO fault of your own, you diden't know about cycleing or water chemistory before buying your fish, and the shop should have told you about all of these things. The sad truth is that very few shops do bother to tell people about these things before selling customers fish.
Anyhow... The action you need to take now is two 50% waterchanges a day untill you can get a test kit, to keep all of the toxins within acceptable leavles. As mentioned before you need tests for Total Ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte and pH. I would advise against using the pH altering chemicals, as they generaly caurse more harm than good. They alter the pH only, and the KH caursing the high leavles remains. This means that the pH will bounce back up again within hours. Fish can addapt to most pH's that are stable, but don't do well with fluctuating pH values.
GRJ gave good guidence as to how to plan waterchanges arround water test results. API I heare do a good kit, but I have never used it. Tetratest kits by tetra are good too, although a little more expencive. The latter is the kit I use.
HTH
rabbut
 
I made a mistake of cycling with Tigers, and lost all six. :blush:

Having kept Tigers for near on a year now I have noticed that if they have been overfed they become very lethargic and do headstands. I have also read somewhere (I`ll find it soon) that if the NitrItes start to rise they will also show the same behavour.

Sounds like your NitrItes are high or you could be overfeeding!!!

Found It.
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=60999
 

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