Barbs pick on pleco

[Waffle toaster]

Hi, I got 2 barbs for my aquarium. I think they're types of Rosies, but I'm not sure. Here's some pics.







Anyways, I also bought a pleco to help clean the tank. The next day, I saw them picking on the pleco a lot. I heard that they did that when you buy them in small groups like groups of 2, but the store only had 2 of them. Should I ask the store to order more, or is there a better way to stop them picking on the pleco?

 

[FeldmansFish]

The best thing you could do is get more barbs (6+). What is your tanks size?

 

[Unicorn1]

^^^ what they said, what type of pleco as well?

 

[Waffle toaster]

It's a 55 gallon, and I got 4 tiger barbs with them, thinking that they would swim together and prevent them from picking on other fish. I think that my pleco is a common pleco. It's one of those black and white ones.

 

[Waffle toaster]

Here's a pic of them together.

 

[Unicorn1]

I would look into getting more rosy barbs definitely and see if that helps. What is the stocking of the tank right now? And yeah that looks like a common. You can also try giving the pleco some more hiding spots to get away from the barbs.

 

[Waffle toaster]

Other than the pleco and the barbs, I have 2 boesemani rainbowfish, and 4 more have been ordered and will come in on Friday, a honeycomb catfish, and I'll also be getting 3 kribensis cichlids and an electric blue jack Dempsey cichlid on Friday. Also the aquarium is also already full of hiding places.

 

[Unicorn1]

Other than the pleco and the barbs, I have 2 boesemani rainbowfish, and 4 more have been ordered and will come in on Friday, a honeycomb catfish, and I'll also be getting 3 kribensis cichlids and an electric blue jack Dempsey cichlid on Friday. Also the aquarium is also already full of hiding places.

Yeah you could do the other barbs I guess, in other news that jack Dempsey will kill everything in that tank lol.

 

[Waffle toaster]

I heard that electric blue jack dempseys are much more gentle than regular jack Dempseys and would leave the other fish alone.

 

[Unicorn1]

I heard that electric blue jack dempseys are much more gentle than regular jack Dempseys and would leave the other fish alone.

You can try it, but you're mixing Africans with dwarf cichlids and community fish, which is a risky combo.

 

[Waffle toaster]

I think they've recognized my hand as the hand that feeds them because whenever I put my fingers in the tank, they swim up and start nibbling on my fingers expecting food. I'm the only one that they do that with.

 

[foshizzle11]

My angel fish started to nibble on my hands when I'm cleaning the tank. The first couple of times I screamed and was a little startled!! Pretty funny, but cool. The only other fish to do that to me was my gar, when I was feeding the catfish by hand. It came out of no where and took the food from my hand, that was a little bit scarier with all those little teeth.

 

[Waffle toaster]

Whenever I try to feed my catfish by hand, the barbs try to tear the food out of my hand, even though it's not their food! It's really funny, but by the time the catfish gets to his food, the barbs have eaten a lot of it!

 

[Aquamandan]

When I was a kid I introduced a pleco into my aquarium with 6 tiger barbs. When I checked on it in the morning, the only thing that was left of the pleco was the skull and spine.

 

[Surfer]

When I was a kid I introduced a pleco into my aquarium with 6 tiger barbs. When I checked on it in the morning, the only thing that was left of the pleco was the skull and spine.

Tiger barbs are mini piranhas lol, I love them, but not around my plecs. I Had to get a new tank to stop the bullying. All of their color morphs look great, besides the glo-fish kind.

 

[Waffle toaster]

It's not the tigers that are picking on him, it's the Rosies. Also I've noticed that they usually only pick on the pleco when I'm feeding him.