Fighting...nipping

[myersrj40]

I have a problem. I had/have 3 small tiger barbs, 3 giant danios, 3 cories, and 3 kissing guarimies. This is in a 29 gallon cycled tank. Problem the danios and tiger barbs do nothing but fight and nip on the other fish. I ended up taking back the danios because they seemed to be causing most the trouble. My gouramies broke out with ick, one died just a few hours ago and the other two don't really show there face any more. I have been treating the ick the last 3 days. Seems to be getting better. I do realize that the gouramies can get up to 12 inches, didn't know that when I bought them but do now. I do have a 75 to move them in eventually but can't set it up because I am living with my parents till I can find a new job. The Tiger barbs are still beating each other up, and they don't allow the gouramies any chance to swim around with out getting nipped up. The cories are the only ones that seem to be evading the beatings. What am I suppose to do?? I thought I had picked a good combination of fish but I guess not, any suggestions for me??

Also has any body tried using C02 Natural Plant System from the company Nutrafin?? I just picked it up from Petland for $29.99 and set it up. Just curious...

Thanks for any help!!! :D

[Dtman]

If you add more Tiger Barbs...Minimum 3...more would be even better, you will find that they will focus almost all their attention on each other. The more you have, the more the aggression will be spread out.

[myersrj40]

So all I should have to do is add 3 or more tiger barbs to the 3 I already have and it should tone down there agression to the other fish. Ok, I will try that then and hopefully that will help. I like the little guys any way. Thanks...........

[DarkTetra]

I would not keep the barbs and the gouramis together. More barbs might help the aggression, but certainly not get rid of it. Gouramis are prime targets for these fin nippers with their long "feelers". Barbs chew up bigger fish with any kind of long appendages. I once saw some barbs in with an angelfish. I'll spare you the details, but it was not pretty.

[Hebdizzle]

gouramis dont become 12 inches

[myersrj40]

Not looking good. Another gourami looks as if it is going to fish heaven. This was one failed fish combination I would say.

Hebdizzle -- according to the stat page on this site, yes they do, check for your self.

[mogurnda]

1. Kissers don't have "feelers."
2. According to FishBase they hit 12". I've never seen them much bigger than 6", though.
Once the ich is treated, you might want to rethink the tank plan. A school of tiger barbs will be pretty, but will limit your future choices.

[myersrj40]

If they even make it past the ich. I am thinking about just giving the Tiger barbs away. As neat as they are they limit the selection way to much. If I got rid of them and kept the 2 remaining gouramies and the 2 cories what other very peaceful not nipping fish should I choose. I am use to keeping fish such as oscars and am thinking I am not very good at these community fish tanks. I am not a pig fan of tetras, would like some fish that are easy to breed. So I would imagine guppies or platys (those are easy aren't they?). Maybe some thing a little less boring though.

[Dtman]

Dark Tetra is probably right about this one. I've never kept Gouramis, so I probably shouldnt have contributed to the thread..

[fishfood]

I have kept tiger barbs and gourmais together for a couple of years. I had problems with the nipping and tearing of fins when I had less than 6 tigers in the tank. When I increased the number to 9, the barbs left the gourmais alone and there were no more torn fins on either the gourmais or the barbs. I've not seen a nipped fin or feeler for over 2 years.

I've seen a lot of people suggest keeping an odd number of barbs together in groups of 7 or more.

[LMOUTHBASS]

barbs then you can really get some interesting peaceful to semi aggressive fish, there's a ton of different gouramis you can get - or you can get some live bearers to go with them, swordtail , lyre tail mollies, platies, can all be fun n wil be fine with your current gouramies, plus you can get some cool bottom feeders, like more cories, or loaches, clown loaches, you'll have a lot of options, just look around your stores, but tigers will limit your picks a little more, i find tiger babrs tank mates tough to comeby as you have to usually avoid lots of longer fin fish, keep them in a propper group, select fish who either wont eat the barbs nor will be beaten up by them either , but with gouramis i think you'll see plenty of nice tank mates