my tiger barbs arent very active..

well what should i do? these guys are just still floating there at the top, not doing anything. this sucks..
 
Have you lowered the temperature as recommended? Or added airstones?

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i lowered the temperature when i made the thread. the temp gauge goes by 5 degreez, so its a bit of a guessing game. i lowered it again yesterday. i think its sitting at 78-79 now. i did not add airstones, but when i made the thread, i took out a gallon or two of water, to leave about an inch of space up top, so the flow hit the tank water harder. and i did a WC yesterday, and left another gap. so i really feel like theres enough oxygen, especially since the other person said that the filter should provide enough agitation. however if there is other opinions on that, i could be compelled to run out and get one.

the fish are still behaving the same way. all the barbs are at the very top of the tank, nose nearly breaking the water. occasionally 1-3 of them will drift around. the GBR's and my pleco seem PERFECTLY fine though. i just do not understand!!! i dont know if i just got screwed up tiger barbs, or theres something weird with the water chemistry or what. i recently stopped feeding them my crappy flake food, and now feed them frozen daphnia and frozen bloodworms (i trade off here and there)...that couldnt have this type of effect right? after about a week or 2 of feeding them the frozen food, they started doing this.
 
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Well, I don't know about daphnia, but bloodworms are *not* a good staple diet. It's like candy, or crappy fast food: best consumed sparingly. If you're worried about the quality of your flake, ask about brands of food compared to what you have? Omega One is pretty good, readily available, and fairly inexpensive, especially when you figure out that you don't need to feed as much high quality food as low quality. My tank is up to 80 for temp, and all of my fish are very active, but none of mine are barbs.
 
i got omega one freshwater flakes today. ill feed that for awhile.

did a 40 percent WC today. fish are flicking all over. even the rams a few times. i mean, the barbs have been flicking in small amounts for weeks, but it was more now that i did a WC. and still, being at the top. any ideas to what it could be? could flicking cause any other symptoms, other than ich?
 
and after how CRAPPY my barbs are doing, my german blue rams are absolutely looking better than ever. espeically since the WC (besides the few flicks i just saw).. ive never seen color so great on these fish.
 
If they're more active after a water change, that would imply an issue of some sort with the tank's water. Is there anything in the water that isn't aquarium safe?
 
a LFS owner (not a box store) said it could be internal parasites..specifically tapeworm.

no one has the meds, but he can ship them in by friday.

im giving the ifsh back to petsmart, refund or not. and going to another store to get new barbs.
 
Well, if it truly is a tapeworm, guess who else has tapeworms? Yep, your rams.
 
I'd say give them some peas. A high protein diet can cause any number of problems, and that's literally all you're providing. Some fish do well on that, but IME, barbs need some veg to do well.
 
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