My Gold Barbs: Aquarium Terrorists

[Ilikefishes]

I would've posted this under Unhealthy Fish, but they're not diseased and I know how to cure them, so here it is:

Throughout my time spent in the Aquarium Hobby, I've noticed nipped fins on my what are supposed to be the "dominant" fish in my tank. I have:

1 Red Tailed Black Shark (who should be the Alpha Fish, but is a peaceful social butterfly)
2 Gold Barbs (who I think are doing the nipping, since barbs are known for this)
6 neons (they're neons...)
1 Betta (again, a peaceful social butterfly)
1 Pleco (pretty small)
2 Boesmani Rainbows
2 Platys


The RTBS has had nipped dorsal which I've Melafixed twice now. My betta now has almost nothing left of his top fin. It is NOT finrot. One of my neons has a tail fin that was nipped off as well. He still swims fine, and Melafix is helping the regrowth process. But do you all suspect that the Two Gold Barbs are doing this? It is happening more and more frequently since the barbs are now a good size larger than they were when I bought them as juveniles. They are not full grown yet. I've seen a full grown gold barb, he was huge. But yeah. Is this gonna keep happening. I love my Golds but I can't have this in my community.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I have read that the more barbs you have, the less chances of fin nipping. If possible you should add in at least 3 or 4 more, but I don't know if that would be overstocked. Could you use a tank divider for a while, and see if the fins stop being damaged? Just a couple thoughts. Good luck!

 

[MartinBlank]

I may be wrong, but I have always heard that keeping more barbs lessens the chance of them nipping. Being a schooling fish they get nervous in small numbers and tend to behave badly. Get them to a schooling number and they are more comfortable and better behaved.

 

[Ilikefishes]

I will look into this. The salesman who sold them to me said to keep them in pairs of two lol.

 

[HeathB]

They're a shoaling fish. This means they always feel a need to roughhouse each other to show off who is the baddest fish in the tank. If there aren't enough of them, they will gladly show off to other fish, who may not understand or particularly desire to play this game. XD

Edit: Saw you have a common pleco too. This will also eventually become a problem, cause commons get fairly big.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I found this for you: courtesy of Barb fish



Most barbs should be kept in groups or large schools, since they are schooling species. Keep at least 5-8 individuals together, preferably more. Peaceful barbs should not be combined with more aggressive aquarium fish, since aggressive species may harass the docile barbs. A few Barb species, including the popular Tiger barb, is know to be fin nippers and should not be kept together with fish equipped with long and flowing fins.

 

[Ilikefishes]

Well I guess that once I get my 55g going I'll add some more. I know my sister will enjoy that too since the Gold Barbs are her favorite fish. The problem is, when I bought my original stock in february, the stores were overflowing with beautiful fish. Now all I'm seeing lately is poor stock.