Help ! - Tiger Barbs attacking each other

[towerp]

Hi there,

I have a large group of tiger barbs however they keep dying one by one due to fin nipping amongst the group. It seems there’s always one Tiger barb which gets picked on it’s tail and/or pelvic fins are nibbled away until no - more. I’ve got 11 Tiger barbs now remaining with 2 with nibbled fins, one very bad which I don’t think willl survive much longer.

What do I do? Buying more doesn’t seem like a solution, I had 14 initially , they are kept along with 8 Odessa barbs - the 2 males are very aggressive but don’t seem to nip the Tigers fins too much - the damage seems to be done by the Tigers themselves.

Could I drop the temperature slightly ? It’s at 24C currently

Other fish are Rainbow shark and 3 striped loaches who appear fine. The fish are housed in a Juwel 240 litre aquarium.

Thanks

[SPACKlick]

Tiger Barbs can be tricky, they really struggle to sort out pecking order. Do you have much in the way of Decor in the tank? Branches, Roots, Plants etc. that can block sight lines? For a fish to concede when they're pecking for pecking order it helps if it can go behind something rather than just swimming away. Although there also needsto be plent of open space for fast swimming as well. It can be a fine balance

It may help to lower the temp slightly but I doubt it will be a magic bullet. How old is the tank, how long have there been Tiger Barb's in it?

That being said, some tiger barbs are just bastards. They want to dominate every other barb in the tank and won't stop fighting till they're the lowest ranked member of the pack left standing. When watching the tank is the agression pretty evenly spread amongst the fish or are there noticeable bullies?

By Striped loach do you mean clown loach? If so, they will eventually outgrow your tank Thye get 20-30cm long in captivity easily and 40cm ones are reported from time to time. And they will struggle with such a small group

[black ghost]

How big is the tank? Tiger Barbs need numbers And space. They’re also a terrible fish to keep with a Rainbow Shark, which wants the middle of the tank as it’s own territory.
Tigers do bicker amongst themselves, but with enough space and numbers they don’t usually do any damage. Are you sure it’s them doing the killing and not the shark?

[towerp]

Thanks for the reply SPACKlick - regarding decor there are several caves and the tank is heavily planted ....

Bullying is evenly spread amongst all of them pretty much... there's three tiger barbs low down in the pecking order who are constantly picked on ... but always one who is really bad nipped...

By Striped loach I meant Zebra loaches - amazingly I've had them 23 years !!

[towerp]

Thanks for the reply black ghost

How big is the tank? Tiger Barbs need numbers And space. They’re also a terrible fish to keep with a Rainbow Shark, which wants the middle of the tank as it’s own territory.
Tigers do bicker amongst themselves, but with enough space and numbers they don’t usually do any damage. Are you sure it’s them doing the killing and not the shark?

My reply to the above is the tank is 240l (121 cm x 41cm and 55cm deep)

The shark is very peaceful and minds his own business, I've observed the Tiger barbs nibbling each other but not the shark.

[SPACKlick]

By Striped loach I meant Zebra loaches - amazingly I've had them 23 years !!

Ah, those will be nay bother but like it a bit warmer than Clown loaches so I wouldn't bother turning the temp down. If you've got hardscape, plants and swimming space and have had a shoal of over a dozen it sounds like you're doing everything right in terms of environment. I presume you're running a sensible lighting pattern. I have read that some tiger barbs can be more agressive in high lighting but I've not seen evidence of it myself.

What about external factors, is there a device that vibrates in the room with the tank (Dehumidifier, Refrigerator), Is there a flashing light near the tank, are there lots of lights or natural light hitting the tank during the "night" phase? Is the tank near a high traffic doorway? Do you have a cat that pounces at the tank all day...?

What's do you feed them and how often? (I Don't think this could be the cause but I'm pretty stumped)

[towerp]

By Striped loach I meant Zebra loaches - amazingly I've had them 23 years !!

I presume you're running a sensible lighting pattern. I have read that some tiger barbs can be more agressive in high lighting but I've not seen evidence of it myself.

What about external factors, is there a device that vibrates in the room with the tank (Dehumidifier, Refrigerator), Is there a flashing light near the tank, are there lots of lights or natural light hitting the tank during the "night" phase? Is the tank near a high traffic doorway? Do you have a cat that pounces at the tank all day...?

What's do you feed them and how often? (I Don't think this could be the cause but I'm pretty stumped)

Hi, lighting is consistent using a timer and on for 9 hours a day, I feed flake food, frozen food -bloodworms , daphnia, tubifex worms, algae tablets, sometimes spinach or cucumber. Tend to feed twice a day , am wondering whether I should try and feed a bit more frequently, always worried they may eat too much though !

Room is quiet really, not a busy room and away from a door... we have a dog but he is calm and ignores the fish

May try to up the frequency of feeding and see if that helps...thanks

As the number of barbs is now 11 I'm not sure how to progress...

[plankton]

Welcome to the forum.
Don't feed any more, and don't lower the temperature either, the loaches won't thank you for it, especially as they're getting on a bit now.
Try cutting the lighting to 8 hours a day.
Other than the shark it sounds like a reasonable setup for tigers - are there lots of plants for them to hide in when the aggression starts?
I'm just wondering whether the Odessa males are a bad influence. When tigers see aggression they tend to follow suit.....

[towerp]

Thanks, will cut lighting to 8 as suggested… and yes the Odessa’s are most likely a bad influence!

My main conundrum is whether to add more Tigers to spread aggression or stick with the current number ( although unless I intervene I think the number will keep going down! )

[plankton]

Adding new ones will likely raise the agression now, unless you add another group of similar size and numbers.