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Hi,

My new young tiger barb has a black stipe. Haha, I know they have black stripes, but this is a horizontal one. Here are two pics:

http://davec.tabbweb.com/images/hstripe1.jpg
http://davec.tabbweb.com/images/hstripe2.jpg

My guess is that it is his gut, which is full of something black. Is this a problem? I have 3 beautiful green tiger barbs in a q-tank for 3 weeks now and want to move them in with the horizontal stipe guy some time. Will they get sick from this guy? He is alone in a 20G with 3 cories. He is new... the other 5 died, and did not have this stripe.

Should I get out the rubber gloves and do something extreme? Do I need medicine? Is it a parasite but common and not to worry about?

He eats tetramin tropical flakes once a day. Water is clean and cycle is fine.

the stripe is nothing to worry about. the breeder that that particular barb came from probably has so much inbreeding that stuff like those spots occur. my tiger barbs have the same thing. it's about as harmless as a freckle.

That is what I thought... I had one a while back with the same stripe. And in the stores I see that too sometimes. I think the stipe grows and fades depending on their mood like the rest of their colors do.