six tiger barbs + four opaline gourami

Discussion in 'Freshwater Fish' started by fielding12, Sep 11, 2009.

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  1. bje

    bje Long-fin Bannerfish

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    ha, i had the same situation man. i started with a 5gal hex, then not 2 months later had a 10gal, 20gal, 30gal fuge purchased w/ 75 gal tall reef ready tank lol. so i know how that syndrome goes.

    id honestly recommend you just take some of the barbs back to the LFS if they're just going to cause you grief. if you prefer to keep the pictus and the gouramis and leave it as a non-aggressive tank do so and rid yourself of your problem fish. it sucks to take a fish back to the LFS but sometimes we have to.

    oh, and yeah 6 barbs in a 10 gal is too much. i had 3 in a 5 gal and 2 months into it i had to move them into something bigger.
     
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  3. fielding12

    fielding12 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    Finally my FW fish have calmed down. The remaining two opaline gouramis are, at least for now, in the 29 gal tank. One of them stayed most of the 24 hrs down low and still in the tank. It came up to feed. Today, a day later, it is swimming around again.

    The six tiger barbs are schooling around with less swimming, but they are in too small a tank, a 10 gal, for now. Anthropomorphically, I think my little Genghis Group are bored with nothing to kill.

    Once my opaline gouramis is perfectly normal, I'll probably swap the two groups: gouramis in 10 gal and barbs in 29 gal.

    "Why can we just all get along"...seems like a good suggestion in this case, but no......
     
  4. fielding12

    fielding12 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    3 remaining tiger barbs & 1 remaining opaline gouramis

    Does anyone have any advice about whether to try these four fish in combination in the 29 gal tank again together.

    Last time the tiger barbs were the first in the tank in a school of six and took out everyone else. The survivor is there because I separated them.

    The tiger barbs were stressed by the 10 gal tank (and not having any territoriality activities?) and developed ick. I'm making progress treating it with higher water temperature and increased salinity. Three of the barbs died during this process but the remaining three seem to be holding on. After 14 days when not showing any ick, I would like to put them back into the larger tank and hope that the gouramis already being there will make them less territorial.

    OTOH I really don't want them to kill the survivor.:-/
     
  5. fielding12

    fielding12 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    Two barbs left and when I watched them this morning one was regularly chasing the other. I separated the aggressive one whose ventral fins were redder in a perforated basket. The other one then became redder on the ventral fins and the one contained blanched out.

    I rue the day I thought a school of tiger barbs would be my best freshwater fish choice. Obviously I have no knack for controlling the aggression.

    I cannot separate these fish into different tanks as they are currently being treated for ick.

    The ick treatment is working fine.
     
  6. bje

    bje Long-fin Bannerfish

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    just curious, what kind of decor do you have in the 29 gal tank (this is the biggest of the tanks you have currently yes?)

    the barbs + other compatible fish should be fine in the 29gal. and if you have decor with places for other fish to hide the barbs wont be able to pick on them constantly.
     
  7. bje

    bje Long-fin Bannerfish

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    im sorry you're having such a horrific nightmare with them
     
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  9. fielding12

    fielding12 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    I appreciate your comments. Honestly I have only read of taking a fish back to the LFS. I guess you bag it up with tank water and return it promptly with no compensation for returning it?

    The 29 gallon tank has a lot of driftwood and some plants for hiding places. I could landscape it more.

    Right now tetras (a new fish for me) are looking pretty good (or possibly moving the three fantailed goldfish into the larger 29 gallon.

    What I would really like to do is get another tank (35-40gallon?) and put the opaline gourami in it with some compatible fish and bump the goldfish up to the 29 gallon. But five tanks...where would it end?
     
  10. acemow

    acemow Purple Spiny Lobster

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    Oh, I think for me it wouldn't end, I'd just add and add and add.....I've had luck getting my fish resold at LFS and they gave me a bit of money for the sale. I've done it with FW fish only, the most I received was for a large Jack Dempsey that someone wanted for a very aggressive large FW tank. Maybe your LFS would offer something like a consignment for you.
     
  11. fielding12

    fielding12 Spanish Shawl Nudibranch

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    Last tiger barb update: The 29 gal tank got down to 1 tiger barb ("G. Khan") and 1 opaline gourami.

    Yesterday I got the opaline three companions and transferred the tiger barb temporarily to its freshwater QT while I did the addition. When it came time to move the tiger barb back into his regular tank, he was dead.

    OK

    That was unexpected.

    In hindsight, I transferred the tiger barb into less water (more like 3 gallons in the 10 gallon FW QT). I didn't think an hour in the smaller tank would be that stressful.

    I double-checked the temperature difference between 29 gal and QT tank water. Nothing significant, maybe a degree difference?

    I cannot smell any chlorine or chemicals that our local water treatment might have added the local water.

    So...I don't know what killed the tiger barb (my Killer Tiger Barb). I feel guilty.
     
  12. skittlesandbeer

    skittlesandbeer Astrea Snail

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    It seems like most of the pet stores I've been in have ranked tiger barbs as just being semi-aggressive. I wonder why that is. We had similar problems with a tank we had when I was younger. We had three of them (I called them the three stooges, haha) and they ate anything they could catch.
     
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