tiger barb deaths

khombre

58
Jul 18, 2005
1,081
0
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45
Quezon City, Philippines
hello everyone

i need help regarding the death of my tiger barbs...
i can't seem to point out the exact reason why they are dying..

water conditions are good, and the tank contains tiger barbs, a single common pleco, and it is planted with what appears to be an amazon swordplant and a stem plant that looks like a waterweed...

every 2 weeks, 1 tiger barb dies... and there is no sign of disease except for one which had dropsy...
each time 1 dies, the remaning ones appear to be active and healthy but after 1 1/2 weeks, one wud stop eating and would die by the time the 2nd week comes..

i had another one die this morning but she was still active and eating as of last night

any opinions?
pls help..

and one more thing, the ones that die usually are sort of "outcasted" by the group before it stops eating probably due to stress.. when they try to rejoin the group, they get attacked by the males sometimes...

its stressing me out cause all of my other tanks are fine..
i dont know wa im doing wrong here :(
 
Barbs are very territorial, and establish a hierarchy. Usually, in larger groups of 8+, the aggression is spread out enough that each barb can deal with the stress. But, sometimes not--you might want to look at adding more plants or decorations to the setup, giving the fish more room to hide from each other.
 
thanx for the input..

my initial guess was that most died due to stress

i noticed that the "alpha" position has shifted so many times with my tiger barbs..
and the whole group usually picks on only one... then the outcast would die probably due to stress..

there are only 5 left now... from 12 that is

any ideas on what i should do with them?
hehe

kind of sad for me coz this is the first time i had this kind of a problem
 
what size tank are they in? some stores will take fish back, call around if you'd like to try something else
 
i think they should stay though

im not really good at disposing my fishies..
i get attached and all

omg! am i crazy?
 
Tiger Barb Bully

I am having a similar problem. I started with 6 Tiger Barbs since it was suggested to keep them in a larger group. After 2 weeks I am down to only 2. It seems the dominate one is picking on the weaker ones until they die. I have several plants and a couple caves to hide in, but it apparently was not enough. Does anyone else have any suggestions on how to keep the full group alive? I really like the fish, attractive and active, but I do not want buy more and end up with the same result. Perhaps someone has another interesting suggestion for tankmates.

20 Gallon Tall
2 Black Mollies
2 Tangerine Mollies
2 (down from 6) Tiger Barbs
1 Knight Goby
 
Post was from 09/07 ;)
 
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