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ok here's the deal...

i lost a few of my tiger barbs in the past few weeks, two in the past week, three all together. at first i thought it was water quality that was killing them, but i noticed something today that made me change my mind. there was one big one, very colorful so probably a male, that was just harassing the others. i mean, chasing them to the point where they'd be nearly floating near the surface. they'd hide in plants and in caves, but he wouldnt leave them alone. then it hit me that it was probably this guy that was harassing the others so much and stressing them out so much that they stopped coming out of hiding, stopped eating and thats what probably killed them. ive never seen a fish go after others like this.

anyway, i set up an empty ten gallon tank that i was planning on using for apistos, threw a bunch of gravel in there, filled it with water from my 46 gallon tank (his original home), put a few bunches of hornwort in and a piece of driftwood, took him out of the big tank and he's now in there all by his lonesome.

so my question is, what to do with him now???

should i try to give him to a pet store??? what if they dont take him, then what?? would it be possible to reintroduce him to the main tank eventually, would that calm him down?? please give me your opinions asap, i'd like to try to resolve this soon, he cant be too happy in that tank by himself


rich

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Back in the saddle!

You can try giving him back to the pet store and tell them that its chasing all your other fish and has killed 3. it also dependes the fish it was chasing.....if the other fish were males then thats what was causing the problem. you should have for each male atleast 2 females so they wont fight over the females in breeding season. i would suggest getting 2 or 3 new females and put the male back into its origanl tank. hope this is a bit of help!

i forgot to mention that tiger barbs are teritorial so they are agrresive to other fish...all my tiger barbs died from the high level of stress from chasing eachother.

Last edited by BabyBlueEyes at 26-Sep-2004 19:14

well, before i took him out he was with 6 females, all to himself. i mean, im not positive they're females, but they dont have his orange nose and they're a bit more stout and they dont have his bright orange fin, so i assume they're female. he just seems to be the especially nasty type.

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then i think its best to take him back to the pet store....sad thing to do but what are you going to do with him? just leave him in that tank alone? :%)

Last edited by BabyBlueEyes at 26-Sep-2004 19:16

i know, he cant stay by himself forever... im just worried that they wont take him back, and even if they do, that he'll still be in a tank by himself, without other tiger barbs

i guess i was just hoping that maybe he'd calm down if he had a little alone time...

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He needs a time out.

give him a good talking to and tell him to pull his fins up, straighten up and swim right. etc. etc.

I'd take him back, or make allowances for him.

If he's the biggest in the tank, make it so that he's not.

I think thats a great idea. Get another peacful fish that is bigger than the tiger barb. Perhaps a clown loach or two which will grow quite a bit bigger than a tiger barb and apparently get on really well with them as they have similar colourings.

Also, you could try re-arranging your tank. I read somewhere that this resets the social scale in an aquarium and may give all your fish a fresh start.

However, the fact that you have already taken him out and put him in his own tank may do a similar sort of thing. If you reintroduce him, he'll be the new fish to the group and will have to fit in with everyone else - not the other way around.

good idea about adding new fish... except my tank's not big enough for clown loaches, it's only 36". the only other fish i was planning on adding were a few ottos and maybe a smaller pleco, like a candy stripe. although i guess instead of the pleco i could go for a few yo yo loaches... any other ideas?

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Back in the saddle!