TropicalExplorer

Ok so I know it's stupid to buy fish before you know anything about them but when i went to the my LFS and saw the barbs i decided to get a couple. I asked the guy that worked at the store about them "my bad" and preceded to get 3 of them 1 albino and 2 regs. I knew they were aggressive but didn't think they'd try to rip each other apart. So after i isolated my one reg bard that now has half a tail in my breeding net i looked more into them. FYI: injured barb is fine and being treated with stress coat. I went and bought 4 more reg barbs and introduced them into my community tank thinking that would settle my evil reg barb down. Well everyone schools nicely together even my injured barb except my original evil reg barb. He never stays with the school and only joins them to chase them. Is this normal? They have only been together for 2 days do you think he'll settle down and get alone with the rest of them?

lew2000

Tiger Barbs are active and usually will sometimes chase each other and even other fish, but in my experience and with other friends tanks - it is not a continual aggression - except it seems with Gouramis. Could be a number of causes to behave this way, if you watched this fish with the other Barb's in the tank at the LFS and it was like this, it won't change - if it wasn't, then the new enviroment has somehow triggered this behaviour. I usually have at leat 6 or more - and you now have 6 Tiger's and if it is still like this, you can put it in another tank with other fish it's size or a little larger, or try something i do with aggressive fish - i got a piece of plexiglass the depth and height of my tank, drilled numerous small holes to allow for water flow, and isolated the fish to a small portion of the tank for a few days (have to insure good flow of water) - sometimes it seems to work and when it doesn't, i either give to a friend to try or return to the LFS.

capekate

Ohh boy... another rouge Tiger Barb! I know just what you are going through...
I had my bad boy TB... he was the devil himself. didnt matter what tank I put him in and who was with him.. he just went after everyone and any species!
There was no changing him til he had to live by himself then he had no choice but to behave. When a friend who had very large TBs for years volunteered to take him off my back I was thrilled! Sometimes they are just evil.. pure and simple lol...
Best of luck with the lil...well, I cant swear, but you get my drift heheeh...
I'd say bring him back to the LFS, he may not give any of your other fish peace.

TropicalExplorer

Thanks for the help guys. I think he finally settled down now I now have 7 peaceful schooling tigers yayayaya! Still have a couple of arguments but nothing like there was.

dancerhas

Congrats.

When we had Tiger Barbs (our first Fishes) we had one that would chase the others constantly, stressing them out majorly. Sadly for him no amount of temporary isolation would cure him of it. So he had to spend the rest of his life on the opposite side of a divider.

Poor Terry. I still feel bad for those Tigers