one tiger barb constantly chasing the others

B

bobsaget

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Feb 19, 2011
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about 7 barbs, in a 20 gallon. all the other barbs were doing fine, but i wanted to add one more barb to the tank. this barb, has exceptional color, and he is slightly bigger than all the others. hes been CONSTANTLY chasing all the other barbs. all the other barbs are forced to just sit in each of the corners and not able to do anything. will this ever stop?
maybe i should note that this dominating barb has orange fins, tail, and nose. very orange. i think thats a male? thats why i got him though, i like the orange. the others have some orange..i figured they were either stressed sothe orange is faded, or just young and the orange hasnt developed yet?
 
How long has this been going on? He's probably just being aggressive to assert his position as the dominant male. I had the same thing happen with tiger barbs. I can't remember how long it lasted but it eventually stopped.
 
Sounds to me like it's establishing a social pecking order of sorts. Wait it out then change the decor of the tank and you should be good to go.
 
rufioman said:
Sounds to me like it's establishing a social pecking order of sorts. Wait it out then change the decor of the tank and you should be good to go.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree - he's just imposing himself/demonstrating that if necessary he can be a total psycho.

I would expect him to settle given some more time - you have a large enough group.

Probably I would leave changing the decor for a couple of weeks, if he's still at it. Changing the decor is usually of more assistance where an established fish are providing the aggression problem - as opposed to the new occupant. Changing it now is just going to stress out the current inhabitants and make them less able to stand up to the new guy.

You have to love the look your fish give you when this happens :-

'jeez man we were like all so totally cool until you put that PSYCHO in here'

Give it a little more time - hopefully it will settle.
 
i unfortunately just changed everything in the tank, and just read your post coler.

but hopefully itll all be okay. ill report back in a few more days just for an update. so far hes still at it (well, im not sure as of this very minute cause the plants are all re-arranged)
 
things seemed to have gotten kind of better, till i noticed a couple of hours later..i had a barb caught in the filter. i of course relieved him from the filter, and he was obviously very weak. i decided enough was enough. i asked my LFS if theyd make an exception and let me trade the bully in. they said yes. so i went and got a smaller male, along with another smaller male..because the poor barb that was weak, is now dead, so he had to be replaced as well.

the bully must have either harassed them to the breaking point, and got a couple of jabs in there..poor fish. so mean!!!!
 
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