ddeluna21

I have a tiger barb that is being very aggressive to the new tiger barb I just put in the tank. It has been in the tank for about 4 days. Today I looked in and the new ones tail has been eaten off. The other one keeps chaseing the new one , what do I do , the new one can 't hardly swim. I'm afraid he will die. HELP

susitna-flower

How large is your tank? Tiger barbs should be put in schools, of say 5 to spread the fun around, but if you have one who has already established his terratory, putting just one more in can be a problem. Tigers have that name because they are inherantly rather agressive. You need to find like tempered fish, that don't have long fins to house with them.
I don't want to encourage you to get more fish than your tank can comfortably hold, this is why I asked how big the tank is , and what you currently have in it besides the tiger barb.
You may be right if the tail is gone, you may loose this new fish. But for future information when introducing new fish with one who has an established terratory, move all the decorations around before you put the new fish in. This mixes up things enough in a lot of cases to give the new fish time to find a spot to get away, and confuses the older fish just long enough to let the new one alone.

ddeluna21

My tank is an 8 gal tank . I have 2yellow mickey mouse,3 red wag platys, and2 of another kind that look kind of like minnows and the 2 tiger barbs. I know that , this is too many for such a small tank. But I test my tank every few days to make sure everything is good and I change the water once a week, until I get a bigger tank, which will be soon because I will be using this tank for my quar. tank when I set up my saltwater tank. I have placed the hurt tiger in a breeder for the time being so the other one will leave him alone. maybe he will be ok. They were swimming together for the first few day. I don't know what happened, is ther anything I can do for him for now or just wait?

Isabella

Susitna-flower is right. Tiger Barbs need to be in schools of at least 5 - 6 fish of their own kind. Otherwise they can be aggressive - which is what is happening in your tank. When in too small a group, they will nip at other fish's fins too - which is also what is happening in your tank.

And yes, you have too many / too large fish as for an 8 gallon tank. Overcrowing a tank, or putting a fish in a small tank that is too large for this tank, will both lead to aggression too. Tiger Barbs need tanks of at least 20 - 30 gallons in size. These fish grow to around 3" in size.