wingnut3254

I have a 10 gallon tank that I previously kept a goldfish in that lived for 8 years, he died about a year ago and I emptied the tank. Two weeks ago I started over, I filled the tank, set everything up, and let it cycle. I then bought two tiger barbs and put them in. Last week one of the two died and upon reading up on tiger barbs I found that this was likely because of the number I had and that they prefer larger groups. With this in mind yesterday I went and bought three more tiger barbs so that there are now four in my tank including the one original survivor. They spent most of last night fighting amongst themselves but this morning they seemed to have settled down and were swimming about normally. When I came home tonight however the three new ones were sitting on the bottom tilted slightly to their sides. When I approach the tank they get up and swim around a bit but they do so at odd angles and shortly return to the bottom. I am basically completely new at this so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

sgould

A couple of things:

1) It is unlikely that the tank cycled in 2 weeks. Have you tested the water
for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? In order for the tank to be cycled and
safe, you need the ammonia and nitrite to be 0, and nitrate less than 20.
Change out 5 gallons of your tank water to see if that doesn't perk them
up, then keep an eye on those water parameters daily until you are sure
the cycle is complete. When changing water, be sure to treat the tap
water for chlorine with a water conditioner.

2) To minimize the agression, or at least spread it out enough amongst the
school, tigers are generally recommended to be kept in groups of 6 or more.
You MAY be able to make 4 work...just keep an eye on them to be sure the
fighting doesn't get out of hand. Before buying more fish though, consider
the next point.

3) Your tank, with 4 tiger barbs, is fully stocked. If you want to keep
additional fish, tigers or otherwise, you will need to look into upgrading to a
larger tank.

Welcome to the site...if you need additional info or clarification on any of the above, just ask! Check out this link for more info about the cycle: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Blub

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

Look for Prime - use it to treat your tap water and do 25-40% water changes every 1-2 days until the tank is cycled. Test the water right before a water change with the API master freshwater kit to get the best results. 6 tiger barbs total would help them get along, but they'll need to establish a pecking order so they may nip a little doing that.

wingnut3254

Thanks everyone, I did a 5 gallon water change last night and they seemed much better this morning. I then went out and bought a test kit. Ammonia is at roughly .2 PPM, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate about 10 ppm. None of them have returned to sitting on the bottom and they have all been swimming about normally all day, also their aggression seems to have dissipated quite a bit, they still occasionally peck each other but not nearly as much as before. Thank you all very much for the help.

Mert16

IS it true that schooling fish should be kept in odd numbers? That way there is less aggression? and yes two weeks is way too short for the tank to have cycled. I have mine set up for nine weeks and it still hasn't cycled. but good luck and welcome to fish keeping again!

COBettaCouple

I'm not sure about odd numbers other than an absolute minimum of 3, but the real minimum for most schooling fish is 6.