Hi, new poster here. Was looking to get some advice from other people who’ve been in similar situations. Apologies if this gets a bit long.
I have a school of 11 tiger barbs in my 80 gallon. I got as many as I could (bought out the store) in an attempt to minimise aggression with the other fish in there. And it seemed to have worked. As per other advice I read, I also added the tigers last in my initial stocking. Whether it was that, or the amount of them, or both, I had literally zero problems with them. I only ever saw them be nippy with each other, and even then, it was rare. I counted myself fortunate to apparently have the chillest tigers ever.
However, inevitably, peace couldn’t last forever. A few months passed and I decided the tank could use 10 peppered cories. It didn’t even occur to me that there’d be a problem. In terms of bottom dwellers, I already had six panda cories in there, and a bristlenose pleco, and they went ignored.
Alas, after the peppers were added, suddenly, there was that infamous bad behaviour. Nothing severe: they just sort of follow them around and pester them more than actual nastiness, but it’s enough that my new cories don’t want to do their cute foraging behaviour out in the open, which is a real bummer as I like to see it.
Is there anything I can do to improve this situation? Maybe things will settle down when the novelty of the new arrivals has worn off? its been a few days, though. As I said, they completely ignore all the other inhabitants of the tank, including the original cories— which I find bizarre. It’s like they’re specifically racist to peppered cories or something. Perhaps the issue is the peppers were added after, and since the tigers see the tank as ‘theirs’ now, anyone new has to be put in their place?
I also considered the possibility of adding more tigers. The thinking being, more of them = less interest in other fish. Having to reestablish their own hierarchy might keep them busy? Or perhaps I can take the barbs out for a few days, to ‘reset’ the territory?
I also also thought about increasing their food, with the view that perhaps they’ll feel less need to be competitive. I currently feed them once a day, but I could up it to twice. My filter is rather overpowered so I’m not worried about the extra detritus.
Anyway, I’d love to hear about how other people dealt with their tiger barbs‘ quirks, and how they managed to make it work (if they did!) Thanks in advance
I have a school of 11 tiger barbs in my 80 gallon. I got as many as I could (bought out the store) in an attempt to minimise aggression with the other fish in there. And it seemed to have worked. As per other advice I read, I also added the tigers last in my initial stocking. Whether it was that, or the amount of them, or both, I had literally zero problems with them. I only ever saw them be nippy with each other, and even then, it was rare. I counted myself fortunate to apparently have the chillest tigers ever.
However, inevitably, peace couldn’t last forever. A few months passed and I decided the tank could use 10 peppered cories. It didn’t even occur to me that there’d be a problem. In terms of bottom dwellers, I already had six panda cories in there, and a bristlenose pleco, and they went ignored.
Alas, after the peppers were added, suddenly, there was that infamous bad behaviour. Nothing severe: they just sort of follow them around and pester them more than actual nastiness, but it’s enough that my new cories don’t want to do their cute foraging behaviour out in the open, which is a real bummer as I like to see it.
Is there anything I can do to improve this situation? Maybe things will settle down when the novelty of the new arrivals has worn off? its been a few days, though. As I said, they completely ignore all the other inhabitants of the tank, including the original cories— which I find bizarre. It’s like they’re specifically racist to peppered cories or something. Perhaps the issue is the peppers were added after, and since the tigers see the tank as ‘theirs’ now, anyone new has to be put in their place?
I also considered the possibility of adding more tigers. The thinking being, more of them = less interest in other fish. Having to reestablish their own hierarchy might keep them busy? Or perhaps I can take the barbs out for a few days, to ‘reset’ the territory?
I also also thought about increasing their food, with the view that perhaps they’ll feel less need to be competitive. I currently feed them once a day, but I could up it to twice. My filter is rather overpowered so I’m not worried about the extra detritus.
Anyway, I’d love to hear about how other people dealt with their tiger barbs‘ quirks, and how they managed to make it work (if they did!) Thanks in advance