Jack Dempsey and Boeseman Rainbow are attacking my Denison Barb

So I just woke up today and took a look at my aquarium and see how everything is doing. I have a 55 gallon with semi heavily planted. 3 half dollar size black skirt tetras, one half nickel black angel, boesemani rainbow and the female jack dempsey. I have had my denison barb for a little over 4 years now and dont want to lose it. The denison barb had lost some sales and was just in the corner all scared behind my amazon sword. My jack dempsey has never been aggresive to any fish in the tank, i was thinking that maybe the denison barb intruded her territory by accident and attacked the denison to defend her territory (denison is almost hitting 5 inches and Jack is 3 inches). My boesemani has always been peaceful, but then out of nowhere, my boesemani teamed up with the jack and started attacking and chasing the denison barb. The denison barb has lost a little bit if scales and I am worried that he might be very susceptible to diseases. I have a 10 gallon quarantine with a half dollar size angel. I dont know if I should leave the tank alone and see how the fish do or remove the denison and add it to the 10 gallon to heal up. Any help would be useful and appreciative! My only question to myself is, why is the boesemani start being aggresive towards the denison out of nowhere when they were always best buddies and left eachother alone.

 

Welcome to fishlore!

Thats definitely strange after getting along for so long. Maybe the boesemani just saw the opportunity with the JD weakening the Denison barb.

The first thing that strikes me is that the Denison barb is alone. They are schooling fish and simply having an appropriate school would offer some protection and not being singled out. Its so much less stress on schooling fish when they are kept in a school. Especially when living with predators like Jack dempseys. They were named after a boxer for a reason.

I would definitely separate them. But you'll need to figure something out long term. Because obviously the 10g won't work for long.

Sorry this happened.

 

Welcome to fishlore!

Thats definitely strange after getting along for so long. Maybe the boesemani just saw the opportunity with the JD weakening the Denison barb.

The first thing that strikes me is that the Denison barb is alone. They are schooling fish and simply having an appropriate school would offer some protection and not being singled out. Its so much less stress on schooling fish when they are kept in a school. Especially when living with predators like Jack dempseys. They were named after a boxer for a reason.

I would definitely separate them. But you'll need to figure something out long term. Because obviously the 10g won't work for long.

Sorry this happened.

I was 10 years old when I got the denison barb, I didnt know a whole lot about fish, but now I know a whole lot more. I originally got two, but the other one died a long time ago, the only reason I got it was because they were 50 percent off at Petco. I was thinking of healing up the denison barb with api stress coat since it has aloe vera in the 10 gallon. I might consider buying another 3 or 4 denison barbs to add with the current one that i have. Do you think if I add the new denisons to the quarantine tank with my denison in there and quarantining them for a few weeks and add them back to the 55 gallon work? (I will be doing 90% daily waterchanges in he qt tank)

Welcome to fishlore!

Thats definitely strange after getting along for so long. Maybe the boesemani just saw the opportunity with the JD weakening the Denison barb.

The first thing that strikes me is that the Denison barb is alone. They are schooling fish and simply having an appropriate school would offer some protection and not being singled out. Its so much less stress on schooling fish when they are kept in a school. Especially when living with predators like Jack dempseys. They were named after a boxer for a reason.

I would definitely separate them. But you'll need to figure something out long term. Because obviously the 10g won't work for long.

Sorry this happened.

Forgot to mention, thx for the welcome

 

I was 10 years old when I got the denison barb, I didnt know a whole lot about fish, but now I know a whole lot more. I originally got two, but the other one died a long time ago, the only reason I got it was because they were 50 percent off at Petco. I was thinking of healing up the denison barb with api stress coat since it has aloe vera in the 10 gallon. I might consider buying another 3 or 4 denison barbs to add with the current one that i have. Do you think if I add the new denisons to the quarantine tank with my denison in there and quarantining them for a few weeks and add them back to the 55 gallon work? (I will be doing 90% daily waterchanges in he qt tank)

If you are doing daily water changes on the QT that would probably be ok. Can you move the angelfish out?

And i meant no criticism on the schooling thing. Its a common mistake newbies make. But now that you know, its a good idea to give him the security of some friends if they are going to live with predator fish. My only concern is the ones at the store are often pretty small. So the JD might be able to make a snack out of them. So try and find larger ones if possible!

You should let the injured one heal first though of course.

 

So I just woke up today and took a look at my aquarium and see how everything is doing. I have a 55 gallon with semi heavily planted. 3 half dollar size black skirt tetras, one half nickel black angel, boesemani rainbow and the female jack dempsey. I have had my denison barb for a little over 4 years now and dont want to lose it. The denison barb had lost some sales and was just in the corner all scared behind my amazon sword. My jack dempsey has never been aggresive to any fish in the tank, i was thinking that maybe the denison barb intruded her territory by accident and attacked the denison to defend her territory (denison is almost hitting 5 inches and Jack is 3 inches). My boesemani has always been peaceful, but then out of nowhere, my boesemani teamed up with the jack and started attacking and chasing the denison barb. The denison barb has lost a little bit if scales and I am worried that he might be very susceptible to diseases. I have a 10 gallon quarantine with a half dollar size angel. I dont know if I should leave the tank alone and see how the fish do or remove the denison and add it to the 10 gallon to heal up. Any help would be useful and appreciative! My only question to myself is, why is the boesemani start being aggresive towards the denison out of nowhere when they were always best buddies and left eachother alone.

Welcome to FishLore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

If you are doing daily water changes on the QT that would probably be ok. Can you move the angelfish out?

And i meant no criticism on the schooling thing. Its a common mistake newbies make. But now that you know, its a good idea to give him the security of some friends if they are going to live with predator fish. My only concern is the ones at the store are often pretty small. So the JD might be able to make a snack out of them. So try and find larger ones if possible!

You should let the injured one heal first though of course.

I am a young teen, and I dont have a job, and I am also on a low budget. So if I am not able to afford 3 or 4 big ones, what do you think would be the smallest size denison barbs I would be able

If you are doing daily water changes on the QT that would probably be ok. Can you move the angelfish out?

And i meant no criticism on the schooling thing. Its a common mistake newbies make. But now that you know, its a good idea to give him the security of some friends if they are going to live with predator fish. My only concern is the ones at the store are often pretty small. So the JD might be able to make a snack out of them. So try and find larger ones if possible!

You should let the injured one heal first though of course.

Thx for all the help, I really appreciate it. Hopefully I can convince my parents to help me buy some denison barbs since I dont have job and they dont give me an allowance. And yes, I can move the angelfish out. I just had a quick question not really related to the topic. But it's about the denison barbs. If I am not able to buy large ones and can only get small to medium denisons, would it be fine to feed beefheart mix to them and raise the temperature to boost growth and metabolism since fish grow faster in higher temps? My uncle keeps discus, so I can just have some beefheart from him.

Welcome to FishLore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you very much.

 

I am a young teen, and I dont have a job, and I am also on a low budget. So if I am not able to afford 3 or 4 big ones, what do you think would be the smallest size denison barbs I would be able

Thx for all the help, I really appreciate it. Hopefully I can convince my parents to help me buy some denison barbs since I dont have job and they dont give me an allowance. And yes, I can move the angelfish out. I just had a quick question not really related to the topic. But it's about the denison barbs. If I am not able to buy large ones and can only get small to medium denisons, would it be fine to feed beefheart mix to them and raise the temperature to boost growth and metabolism since fish grow faster in higher temps? My uncle keeps discus, so I can just have some beefheart from him.

If you have to start with smaller ones that is understandable. Its hard to even find larger ones anyway sometimes.

I think your plan to grow them out quicker sounds good!

 

It is possible the barb was sick in some way, and that the other fish attacked it in an instinctual effort to make themselves safer. I would hate for you to spend the money on a school of them, "they are very expensive" just to have the older one die. I think you should quarantine the old one for now and give it at least a week to see if he improves. You can try the stress coat with aloe, but that is a product that many believe does not really help anything.
I have added cuttlebone to hospital tanks and it might be a coincidence but it really seems to help.
If you want a school of denisons, get at least 6, they are awesome!

 

It is possible the barb was sick in some way, and that the other fish attacked it in an instinctual effort to make themselves safer. I would hate for you to spend the money on a school of them, "they are very expensive" just to have the older one die. I think you should quarantine the old one for now and give it at least a week to see if he improves. You can try the stress coat with aloe, but that is a product that many believe does not really help anything.
I have added cuttlebone to hospital tanks and it might be a coincidence but it really seems to help.
If you want a school of denisons, get at least 6, they are awesome!

Agreed....they should wait until the current one is fully recovered before spending money on more! Definitely.

 

To be honest I would remove the jack dempsey. Long term it will be nothing but trouble with your other fishes (esp the angels). Btw that barb is now on the endangered list (at least the wild variety).

 

To be honest I would remove the jack dempsey. Long term it will be nothing but trouble with your other fishes (esp the angels). Btw that barb is now on the endangered list (at least the wild variety).

Very good point. I didnt even consider the fact that the angel will be in with the JD after QT if that's the only tank....

Ya....angels and JDs are definitely not compatible.

 

Thx for all the advice and help, really appreciate it! I will see how everything goes. At the moment, the rainbow and jd arent doing anything to the denison, they just swim pass him as if nothing happened. I will keep you guys updated on how everything goes. Once again, thx for all the help and advice!

 

They will most likely ambush it at night so stay up late

All the stuff in my tank occurs in the cover of darkness (I have kribs and they are nasty to tankmates).

Thx for all the advice and help, really appreciate it! I will see how everything goes. At the moment, the rainbow and jd arent doing anything to the denison, they just swim pass him as if nothing happened. I will keep you guys updated on how everything goes. Once again, thx for all the help and advice!

 

They will most likely ambush it at night so stay up late

All the stuff in my tank occurs in the cover of darkness (I have kribs and they are nasty to tankmates).

Sure will, the tank is in my room, so it will be no problem.

Ok, so the jack dempsey has left the barb alone and hasn't chased or attacked him at all so far today. But the denison and rainbow keep going at it. Everytime I pass by my tank, the rainbow and denison are fighting, trying to nip eachothers fins and are "biting" eachother. I have never seen this type of behavior from 2 different peaceful fish. Anybody think they might know why they are fighting?

 

You need to get the barb out of that tank ASAP!

 

I already did, he was the one winning between the two. I still find it very strange why they would fight with eachother.

 

The rainbow is likely seeing the roseline as a threat (sparring rather than trying to kill each other), mainly for territory. Similar to how male rainbows react to each other (circling and nipping with fins flared).

However I will say as the jack grows it likely will go after the other fish in the tank (especially if it is male as they can hit 10").

 

The rainbow is likely seeing the roseline as a threat (sparring rather than trying to kill each other), mainly for territory. Similar to how male rainbows react to each other (circling and nipping with fins flared).

However I will say as the jack grows it likely will go after the other fish in the tank (especially if it is male as they can hit 10").

It's a female

 

With both the rainbow and the denison barb being schooling fish, it does make me wonder if youd be having this issue if they were not both being kept singly. Just speculation.

(That isn't meant as criticism)

 

I might replace my black skirt tetras with denison barbs, that way the denison barb isnt alone. Hopefully giving the denison more buddies will solve the issue.