Newbie questions

[NY Detailer]

Hello All. I just got a 46 Gallon bow tank. i have 6 Barbs and 1 tri color shark in the tank. Yesterday my barbs beated up my shark that the shark was swimming with it nose down. I took him out of the tank and have him in a 5 gallon tank to heal. He is doing much better but now the Barbs look like the took the tank over and they are all fighting each other.

What should I do?
Should i get rid of the barbs?

I am used to helping others out on car forums, so this is a first for me at another forum. any advice would be great.
Thanks

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

I've never had any luck with barbs. What kind of barbs are they, to be exact?

I had tiger barbs that terrorized my tank.

Someone with better barb knowledge should be able to help, but from my experience they are aggressive.
How long have they all been in the tank together? What size are they? Is the tank new? What are your water conditions?

All this info will help.... :)

-Diana

[snakeskinner]

hmmm, my barbs are actually very good. Usually a small number of barbs will cause problems but the more you have, the better they tend to be. I started with 5 tiger barbs along with 2 serpae tetras in my 36 gallon 1/4 cylinder and they prettymuch keep to themselves. they all chase after eachother and nip at eachother but no damage is done and it's never serious. I added 2 green barbs, 2 albino barbs, 2 more serpae tetras and 3 black ruby barbs and they all do great. My most aggressive fish is the gold gourami who thinks he owns the tank. Once fish have established themselves, he leaves them alone but if I add any fish, he thinks he has to put them through hell week I guess. I don't have any sharks though, just a couple cory's, a large pleco that prettymuch stays put on his log and a couple ottos. I do believe I've heard barbs and most sharks don't get along though. I personally think my barb tank is the most fun to watch since they are all so active and don't hide. Along with the barbs listed, I have 3 giant danio's and 2 green barred danio's and the tank is solid movement, especially when feeding. My personal thoughts would be to take the shark back and get lots more barb varieties. All the tigers swim together and the black ruby's intermingle but don't really school together. My serpae's school a lot with the barbs as well. Just make sure you don't get any fish with flowing fins. I tried Congo Tetras and the tiger barbs would lightly nip at their tails so I pulled them back out. good luck, Kyle

[NY Detailer]

i got rid of the barbs today. The tore up my tank. Plants were floating, and all my air tubing was moved.

Today i got a Gourami, Rainbow, clown loach and the shark. They all seem to be getting along, but the shark is just pacing the larger fish in the tank like he is planning something.