thatlilred

Hello..I have a 32 G tank.. I have had it for about a month and a half.. I wasnt totally understanding the nitrogen cycle - but now am caught up.. I had purchased a few fish before I had my nitrites under control. Anyways some survived my ignorance and are doing fine now that I am " in the know"...My nitrite levels have gone down to almost zero as of today.
I had left ( after the deaths) one tiger barb, one angel, one balloon mollie, one dalmation mollie, and two strawberry barbs.

My tiger barb started hiding himself in the corner of my tank by the heater and swimming in place with his head down.. ( clearly stressed) - I tested my nitrites again.. and they are better than ever (almost 0 -)...I researched and learned that tiger barbs are schooling and should be kept with at least 6 of their kind. So today ( being my birthday hehe) My son wanted to purchase some fish for me.. we went and got 4 more tiger barbs... Immediatly when I set them loose into the tank the stressed barb joined them! hurray! ( he hasnt eaten for two days)
But about 45 minutes later; and the new barbs are cruising around with the strawberry barbs and the little stressed barb is now swimming on his own again in one spot at the bottom of the tank

Is there anything I can do to make him feel better? They accepted him fine when he joined them...

PS_ I have have learned that keeping barbs and mollies together isnt the best as they have different pH/water hardness preferences... funny how the enlightened pet store failed to mention that when they encouraged me to group them together

thanks for any help with my little barb

Jaysee

Unfortunately, the scars of cycling are perminant. While the fish survived, it's at a much diminished capacity. It's not uncommon for fish to survive our mistakes and ignorance only to die once we get things under control.

Best thing you can do IMO is keep the water quality up and wait.

If the fish doesn't join the school, it's on it's way out. IME with tiger barbs, the school identifies the weakest fish and kills it by harassing and preventing it from eating. Marked fish will start looking a little deformed (shape of the head and stomach) - the beginning of the end as it wastes away. I've had this happen with schools as small as 5 and as large as 20 - it's predictable.

I used to think it was the quality of stock, which is always a huge factor, so I started keeping my new tigers in a holding tank for months, only adding the best looking, healthiest fish to the main tank. Doesn't matter - one is always on the way out in a tiger barb school.

Furallicah

My friend has the same problem, 2 rosey barba, 3 tiger barbs and two albino barbs. One of the albino barbs will not school with the others...its so odd all he does is float in the middle of the tank and swim by himself for a little bit then is back in the same spot. Maybe he is just the outcast or maybe he is still stressed from his new enviroment. Im not sure....Someone should be along shortly with a better answer to your question.

Jaysee

My edit explains the lone tiger barb syndrome.

anunez91

id give it some time, when i got my tiger barbs, i was stuck with one green one that i didnt nesssecarily ask for, for about two weeks he would refuse to school with the others, now a good two months later, they all chase each other around the tank happily and such, just give him some time and hopefully he will perk up. Good luck, i hope the cycle wasnt to harsh on him. =/

mosin360

The pH bit isn't as important as you may think. As long as you acclimated slowly the fish should be able to adapt to whatever you have. Now, I don't know if there are extremes to this like a fish natural habitant is 8+ and you got 6 but as far as I've read, pH isn't much of a worry.

Jaysee

Mosin360, that is correct.