Tiger Barb Fighting

U

uncutbulldog

Large Fish
#1
May 21, 2003
182
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47
Indianapolis, IN
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#1
I have 6 tiger barbs in my tank. The same two tiger barbs may be fighting, but im not sure. I know its the same two because because of distinctive markings. At first I thought they were kissing and playing. But it is getting very violent to point that both of thier mouths are bright red, like they are bleeding. Is this normal? It doesn't seem like one of them is a bully, they attack each other. Do I need to be concerned about anything? Or should I just be enjoying thier playfullness.

Thanks All!!!!!!!!!!
 

S

Scavanger

Small Fish
#5
Jun 7, 2003
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#5
First off, your not a loser for looking at your fish alot. My God, isn;t that why we go through all these water changes, maintenance and money in the first place???

Anyway, it sounds like a dominence battle with your barbs. It is quite natural and normal, esp if they came from differant batches.
I'm not 100% on tiger barbs, but with a lot of species the weaker of the two will submit before extreme or fatal damage is done.
Don't take my word for gospel, I'd hate to get your hopes up and be wrong. Continue to monitor them and if you get truely worried, you could add a seperation into your tank, but let them see each other. They may get bored of each other and not get back into it.
 

C

colesea

Superstar Fish
#6
Oct 22, 2002
1,612
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NY USA
#6
Dominate tiger barbs of most species will turn red around the mouth to show they are top fish in breeding condition. That is normal coloration for tiger barbs.

Scavanger is right, your TBs are doing dominate battles in your tank. I myself (who got a BS college degree in fish watching, no lie) have observed the same behavior in my green TBs, and at frist thought they were doing some sort of mating dance. After watching them for quite some time, and noticing that fish tended to drop dead after these battes, I realized that the alpha fish in the school was killing off the rest of his buddies.

This can be because of several factors:
1) your school is all a single sex
2) not enough fish in your school making it easier for the fish to get 'tudes with each other
3) the tank is too small to house the number of fish you have, so they're fighting because they are crowded

Sometimes the fish work it out for themselves what their pecking order ought to be, and they settle down. Sometimes the alpha fish isn't happy until all rivals are disposed of, especially if theare are other challengers who won't back down or have no place to hide.

There are several ways to deal with the problem:
1) Take the aggressors and seperate them
2) Get a bigger tank
3) Add a whole lot more hidey spots for the loosers
4) Increase the size of your school
5) Add a bigger bad-arsed fish that would put the aggressive TBs in their place

Good luck
~~Colesea
 

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