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are barbs known for fighting eachother. there seems to be two that always like to take each other on. is that normal?

another wierd thing is my tiger barbs mimick my loaches not the other way around. they follow the loaches around. but they also start to bottom feed when the loaches do. its quite funny seeing all the barbs all of a sudden start picking at the bottom.

then when the loaches go back into the plants the barbs go back insync with the rasboras and black neons.

are the barbs known for mimicking?

Tiger barbs are a semi-agressive species, and will regularly peck amongst themselves when in a larger group, establishing a pecking order and displaying to each other. When in small groups, they'll peck on other fish.

Chances are the loaches found food and the barbs want in on it. Mine regularly rip apart pellets/wafers. They kinda go with the flow, so interaction with the loaches is normal.

Barbs will nip at each other regularly & sometimes they will nip other fish, aswell.



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As barbs and loaches are related and have similar markings they may think the loaches are other barbs, it is possible that if the loach is bigger than the barbs they will see it as the dominant barb and will follow it. That is a really neat thing you have happening in your tank!
Also the fighting and nipping is the way they establish who is the dominant barb,the largest male usually gets this position by default, the two that are at each other are likely close to the same size so one has to declare himself the top barb. This rarely ends with damaged fish althougha really good bout will have both contestants gasping for air and seemingly exhausted. Barbs will routinely do this all the way down to the smallest one to determine the pecking order, they are very much like dogs in this respect, if a fish can be said to be like a dog in any way!

BTW I have 6 tiger barbs in a mostly barb tank, danios, otos, SAE and 1 female krib. The krib looks nothing like a barb and yet every now and then she 'schools' with them, then she tells them all off and goes back to doing her own thing.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

the CL profile says the CL mimic the tiger barbs but its actually the other way around, so what they are doing is totally normal