six tiger barbs + four opaline gourami

I had 6 tiger barbs in with 4 opaline gourami. Today I noticed that I had 6 tiger barbs and 2 opaline gourami. As I watched about 4 barbs were frequently chasing 1 gourami around and I saw nipping at its tail.

The barbs are smaller than the gourami. I knew the barbs were aggressive but I thought they were too small to take the bigger fish.

3 polka-dot pictus catfish don't seem to be in the fray at all. They are still very small.

(I moved the remaining 2 gourami to another tank. I see no signs of the missing 2 gourami, no dead fish or half-eaten fish or anything. Guessing I'll see something when I mix up the gravel and change water tomorrow?)

 

We had a couple tiger barbs and they ended up being more aggressive than we thought, also got bigger than they normally do. I think it's a good idea to scout around for any dead fish or half-eaten ones, although our barbs could finish off a fish once they got a bit bigger.

 

Gouramis commonly get bullied I guess, I have guppies that love to nip at my neon gouramis.

 

i had three tiger barbs in a 5 gal tank that wound up killing the baby pleco in there. i put them in a 55 gal tank and they wound up killing a few other fish. they were CONSTANTLY attacking things. it was crazy. they killed 3 fiddler crabs as well when i moved them to a 20gal tank temporarily

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Guess that is why they are called "tiger" barbs.

(No disrespect to tigers, just the comment that you don't want to share its enclosure.)

 

tiger barbs take out a polka-dot pictus catfish!

These 6 barbs have 2 cats left in the 29 gal tank and I am seriously thinking of pulling them out.

My alternative tank is too small (10 gal) for the 2 opaline gouramis, snail, and 3 cats...it is also too small if I put the tiger barbs together in it. I'll have to figure out something. (My spouse has held me to the number of tanks we have got, not an unreasonable position.)

Wow! I thought having them in a group of six would calm them down.

My observations are that they are killing their tank mates. (Should I get a Jack Dempsey?)

 

if i understand correctly you're asking if it would be advised to put a jack dempsey in your freshwater tank that has some cat fish and tiger barbs?

my answer would be no. your jack dempsey will kill your barbs, and more than likely prey on the cats if its not fed properly.

my dempsey is a beast. but its in a lake malawi cichlid tank where the aggression is all sort of balanced out.

 

Thanks, pje. Aggression is relative and I haven't had anything nearly as aggressive as the tiger barbs have been. I guess my imagination failed me and I thought the Jack Dempsey might be dominant enough to survive. I have no wish to put something more aggressive that will put the barbs into relative tameness.

I think I may end up with a barb only tank in a bit.

Meanwhile I am trying to stay on top of it and rescue the other fish as soon as aggressive starts to show before damage is done.

 

guess i misunderstood. what i was saying was that the dempsey will wind up killing your barbs when it gets old enough. the barbs never touched my syndontis cat

 

Tiger barbs killed another pictus cat last night.

I'm isolating the 6 barbs from the remaining 2 opaline gouramis and 1 polka-dot pictus. My problem is I have two tanks to divide them between: the "quarantine"/now FW 10 gallon and the 29 gallon FW.

Ideas? I thought 6 barbs in 10 gal too dense, but then it really doesn't seem right to crowd the non-agressors into the 10 gal. My patient, supportive spouse has requested no additional tanks since I put up 4 in three weeks.