Tiger Barb getting chased by cichlid, what to do?

thesnowboarder · 01-12-2007, 05:27 PM

today i put a tiger barb into my 55 gallon, there is plenty of space to swim for all my fish but it seams one of my cichlids likes to chase the new barb, the barb is bigger than the cichlid (cichlid maybe half grown)

should i put another barb into the tank

or should i just let it be, since no fins are being torn off (as of now)

thanks
-Nick

Birchell · 01-12-2007, 05:50 PM

I would make sure the tiger can get into a hidding spot and wait a few days. Cichlids will always chase new fish, just to let them know who is boss, ha. I had a school of tiger barbs with a green terror, and he only ate one then just got used to them. Tiger barbs are fast, and love to swim. Also thank about geting him some buddies. They do best in groups of around 5-6. That way he want turn on your cichlid later and eat his fins. Good luck,

Michael

thesnowboarder · 01-12-2007, 05:55 PM

so i should get anothe barb right?

Birchell · 01-12-2007, 06:22 PM

I would. What kinda cichlid do you have?? If it is just a convict, or something that want eat them right now, you would be better off getting a few barbs, so not just one fish is being chased all the time. Plus a lonly barb is a bad barb, lol. They will get along after a few days to a week. Cichlids are just really territorial and take awhile to find that the new fish is not a threat.

coral reefer · 01-12-2007, 06:49 PM

Tiger barbs do better when they are in a group. What kind of Cichlid are we talking about?
If the bullying continues, I would make a choice as to which one goes, so that you don't end up loosing the Barb. Who knows, the bullying could disapate, but better to be safe than sorry. Tiger Barbs are pretty tough, however, I do know that housing cichlids and community fish don't mix to well unless you are talking cichlids like a Severum, Ram, keyhole or the equivalent. Firemouths, Convicts, Terror's, Managuenses, Jack Dempsey's etc. don't get along well with community fish at all.

thesnowboarder · 01-13-2007, 12:35 AM

i believe its an african, there are a few other small fish in the tank as well, bala shark, and even a zebra danio

thesnowboarder · 01-16-2007, 05:34 PM

ok so i put another barb in and now the cichlid chases both barbs, which is better in my opinion because its not just one barb getting chased so not all the stress will be on one

Is this better or worse?

Birchell · 01-16-2007, 05:40 PM

better, it will just take some time for the cichlid to get used to the barbs.

Fishyz · 01-16-2007, 06:03 PM

From my expirience with africans, I have found that only mixing africans with africans is the best. As the africans grow larger, they will become even more agressive/territorial and could possibly kill the smaller/not as agressive fish. If I were you, I would stick to only africans in the tank. Good luck!

djnzlab1 · 01-16-2007, 06:17 PM

HI,
Well I have numerous species with africans and if it fits in their mouth it will be gone,.
I have found that many animals if raised together seem to do better, but adding new smaller fish is a feeding frenzy.
another neat trick is to put something large in the tank I like large drift wood it can stain the water so you need carbon. this allow the scared ones to break eye contact with the larger meaner fish, it works because they forget about the smaller fish, Plants and fake plants don't work cause africans dig a lot. alot...
I had 12 of those giant danio in a tank with africans and they schooled this seemed to prevent attacks. I like the danio because they are tuff large and pretty cheap and have neat metalic scales that are nice to look at,
I have found that many large fish are pigs so having a school of smaller fish helps clean up the gill debri that passes thru the gills while the bigger fish feed.
I also shut down the filtration during feeding of the large fish it allow them to clean up before it hits the filters and loads them up.
Another neat trick is to feed food that is very bio freindly for filters and has a good mixture of types of food. I have found that many of the more expensive koi tetra color is my favorite koi food they are perfect for large african it has a mixture of benaficial plant and some fish prtoein and shrimp and floats allowing the fish to find all the food and the mum seems to break down and not fowel filter as quick as the flake foods and the protein shrimp diets, most problems with large fish are filter poop load related.
I ve raised my african and sevrons together in a brackish tank for over several years and several generations with also a few of those loaches and a velvet red pleco.plecos seem to like it around 80 dg, dont go over a spec grv around 1.005 its hard on the non brackish fish I think many of the south american fish can tolerate salt ,
No problems I do add crushed coral to my gravel to stabilize my PH and use some marine salt. the sevrons learn to tolerate the ph if its done graually.
most of the Zebra species are pretty docile some of those large mouth ones are meat eaters..
Doug