Tiger Barbs not looking right

[CatFish Show]

Well, this is my first post here, and I hope its the right place,

We set up our fish tank about two weeks ago and everything seems to be going well. We took a few days before we added fish and we started with:

2 female red swords
2 male red swords

They are doing great and so we went to add some more

we bought 2 small Tiger Barbs.

Once they were added to the tank - one seemed to be acting weird - facing down and having trouble swimming. I have seen this before in Barbs, and was wondering if we got a sick fish. What should we do? The other one chases it around alot.. a bit worrisome!

Any suggestions.

Cat

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

im gonna go out on a limb and assume you did not cycle your tank??? Do a massive water change and read up on cycling.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5927

[CatFish Show]

Well, since we are still in the begining stages of the tank, I have been doing water changes every two to three days, - about 15% (3 gallon bucket for a 20 gallon tank)

I add Aqua Plus (1 capful) each time and have added Aqua Cycle twice since we started the tank at the end of Dec.

Is that not good enough?

[Roan Art]

Well, since we are still in the begining stages of the tank, I have been doing water changes every two to three days, - about 15% (3 gallon bucket for a 20 gallon tank)

I add Aqua Plus (1 capful) each time and have added Aqua Cycle twice since we started the tank at the end of Dec.

Is that not good enough?
No, unfortunately it's not good enough. Aqua Cycle isn't going to help you establish your tank.

Please read this article on Cylcling:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26051

You'll need a liquid test kit ASAP.

Roan

[Genral72]

I have heard that tiger barbs will do head standing things when the nitrites are high.

[Roan Art]

Tiger barbs headstand when they feel like it. Seriously :)

The ones that were in my son's tank did it quite a lot. It's just a tiger barb thing and nothing to do with nitrites.

Cat has indicated, however, that her fish is not only headstanding, but having trouble swimming as well. That is not normal tiger barb behavior.

Further to my previous post, Cat, 3 gallons out of a 20g tank every two or three days will not control the ammonia and nitrites that will build up and kill your fish. You will have to do 50% -- half the water -- every day until the ammonia and nitrites are under control or you will lose your fish. Test the water after each change and work down from there.

Roan

[rrkss]

we bought 2 small Tiger Barbs.

Once they were added to the tank - one seemed to be acting weird - facing down and having trouble swimming. I have seen this before in Barbs, and was wondering if we got a sick fish. What should we do? The other one chases it around alot.. a bit worrisome!

Any suggestions.

Cat

Two tiger barbs is not enough to realy be successful. These fish need to be in shoals of at least 6 fish otherwise they will fin nip your other fish to death. Tiger barbs are known to do head stands and other weird swimming tricks. They usually do this right after meals for maybe an hour or so but this swimming stunt is nothing to be alarmed of.

[Eznet2u]

My Tiger Barbs did the same thing, until the cycle settled down, they haven't done this for over 2 months now, all chemistry in order. I had to do 50/50 water changes, every other day. (change 50 percent followed by another 50 percent change) Also to keep them from nipping just add a LARGE Pleco to the tank, mine never schooled and had killed 3 or 4 fish until I added 12 inch pleco. Now they school tight, and have left everything else in the tank alone. :dive:

[CBTF]

I'd just keep changing the water. I didn't cycle my new tank either, so welcome to the club. I lost about 4 fish but it's settled down now. Hopefully everything works out for the best!

[rrkss]

I'm assuming my rainbow shark will scare mine into schooling. He does a good job keeping my other barbs together.