vinceli

I'm new to aquariums I have a 150 galoon tank with some tiger barbs. I have 11 barbs now and 2 small albino sharks.

I started out with 8 barbs. Then 3 days ago I bought 4 more barbs. While the store owner was bagging them 2 jumped off. He told me they must be really healthy that they jumped off.

When I placed all 4 in my tank, I noticed one of the barb's wasnt joining the group. It seemed he had a problem swimming, Im not sure if he broke some bones when he jumped off the bag.

Basically he looked physically dissabled, there wasnt any skin problem I could identify etc.But then I read something about a bladder disease that caused them to swim sideways. So I thought maybe I could read something about it and maybe I could help him out.

The following morning, I couldnt find him! I had fish die before they would either be dead floating or stuck somewhere.

I also noticed something that looked like a fish flesh part stuck by the plants. I tried to pull it out but I lost it in the sand.

Do any of you guys know of barbs eating their own? I've googled this but all I got was barbs eating their eggs.
I read something about barbs attacking sick slow barbs but this wasnt happening when the poor fish was swimming dissabled. He just dissappeared maybe the albino sharks ate him?


Maybe I'm not feeding them enough?
What I noticed is when I come close to the tank they follow me. But Im scared of overfeeding, last time I had some goldfish that I overfed and died.
I feed them once a day now. I dont follow the 2 minute rule, I just give them a pinch of fish food.

Thanks.

agabr123

hi and welcome to fishlore

pretty much any and all fish will eat another fish after it has died, and it's definitely possible that they picked on him until they died from the stress. i used to feed my community twice a day, with a couple pinches of flakes in just a 10 gallon tank. so IMO you should increase the amount that you feed to what they can consume in the two minutes.