Tiger barb HELPED needed!?

Question

I recently added 4 tiger barbs to my 5 gallon tank, with 1 tiger barb in it. Yet they are all being chased by the 1 to death, what do i do?

Answer 1

I agree with the first answer. Your resident barb has claimed his territory and he's just being making sure the new comers know it's "his" home. By jungling things up a bit and changing the aquascape - especially if you've removed the agressor from the tank, you are likely to confuse the agressor and give all the fish a chance to claim a territory without being stressed to death. :)

On a somewhat side note - 5 barbs in a 5 gallon tank is MUCH too small for them. When these guys get to adult size, you're looking at around 3 inches a piece. I'd upgrade to a 30 gallon to house them nicely. Here's a link to some information on Tiger Barbs for you. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/cyprinids2/p/tigerbarb.htm

Good luck!

Answer 2

You may need to trade them in for less agressive fish- while barbs are still comunity fish they like to chase each other, and 5 galleons doesn't give the "victims" much room to swim away. You may have better luck with a small school (3-5) og guppies, neons, mollies, zebra danios or something similar.
If you really want to keep your barbs, try is to put some hiding places in your tank- pet stores sell hollow ornaments with holes for this purpose. In a pinch you can put a few sideways mugs to make "caves" just be sure there's no soap on them.

Answer 3

This is not uncommon with tiger barbs, when adding new fish to your tank the lights should be off. This will reduce stress for the new and present fish in the tank. I wouldn't add any more fish, it mite be a bit crowded already, they should be fine in couple of days!

Answer 4

I had a Tiger Barb and it was the meanest fish I have ever had. I threw him in with 7 Red Belly Piranha's and he about ate them alive before I got him out. Some fish, just like people I guess, are wired all wrong lol. If it continues, get him out or you may have some dead fish.

Answer 5

The maximum size of all of your fish combined should not exceed the number of gallons your fish tank holds. Leave the tiger barb in there an if the problem gets even worse, then take him out for a while, one of the other fishes probably just nipped at it

Answer 6

If recently means today, give them another day to settle in. If you mean from more than a day ago, try removing the chaser for a few hours moving a few things around in the tank and returning him to the tank after the other fish settle down a bit. The change in the tank may be enough to get him unsettled and make him stop chasing.

If that doesn't work you will have to remove the chaser for good.

MM

Answer 7

aww i love tiger barbs. i always have them.

well i can say is that hes terrorial and very bossy. i sometimes have one in tha school who's not so friendly. tiger barbs are also nippers. i can also say that the bossy one will chase them untill he's da only fish in tank whos alive. it happened to me alot.

some fish are just good loners. i had two-three loners. so i guess you could separate him or her in to a different tank.

Answer 8

tiger barb are known as fin nippers and be quite aggressive when they want to be and its common that the original fish will chase the other because they have invaded his territory

Answer 9

i love tiger barb .think of the name of the fish . the will eat at you fish fin an more .an buy a good boOK at your pet shop .it will help ok .an have fun.

Answer 10

barbs are aggresive get rid of the one most fish stores will take it back and give you a credit of some sort for it