my fish are fighting

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ilovemydragongoby

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
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I just started up my tank last week. I have three cherry barbs, a black moore, a dragon goby and an algea eater (one of the smalls ones, i'm not sure what it's called). Everything has been going great up until today. Two of the barbs are starting to fight. I'm wondering if it's possible that I have two males and a female? Two of the barbs are a darker pink and one is a lighter pink. The two darker ones are the ones fighting. Should I be seperating them, or should I just mind my own business and let nature do its work? lol
 
most barbs are an aggressive and shoaling fish. they should be in groups of 6 or more to spread the aggression. we had just two rosy barbs at one point and the male would constantly harass the female until they were both gone (also did not cycle, long story, but then i found this site, and i have a beautiful tank!)

anyway i would just get 3+ more cherry barbs and you should see less agression. how big is your tank??

edit: just saw you have a dragon goby with those fish. is it a brackish tank?
 
Kind of unrelated but is it this kind of dragon goby: http://www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/dbimages/dragon goby2(1).jpg ?If so, those are brackish water fish. Also has some good information on your cherry barbs: Cherry Barb

"Cherry barbs should always be kept in groups, but they will not form really tight schools. Within the Cherry barb shoal, a strict hierarchy will be observed. If you keep more than one male, the males will compete with each other but rarely cause severe injury. Keeping two males in the same aquarium is actually highly entertaining since the males will “dance” in front of each other rather than simply fight. During the dance, the males will encircle each other whole displaying erect fins. Males will also become more vividly coloured when kept together with other males."

You might want to get more cherry barbs to complete your shoal, possibly some female ones which are less vividly colored than males, if you can.
 
its only a freshwater tank, I've read lots of articles already about the goby and they all say different things...kind of confusing. When we bought the fish, the guy at the fish store said that it was a weather loach. And all the fish can live in freshwater perfectly find. We later found out it was a goby. (I ended up paying half price for it because he looked up the wrong fish). And he also said that the fish that we picked would go very well together. We are planning on getting a few more barbs.

Is it difficult to turn the tank brackish? And are the barbs brackish fish as well as the goby?
 
It would probably be better to just start a new tank considering they can get up to 15" and wouldn't be too comfortable in a 20g. I don't think the barbs are brackish and if you have a pleco, they can't tolerate salt well either.
 
Be wary of the advice at most fish stores. Their employees are usually only as educated as the folks profiting from sales want them to be. The barbs are not brackish, the goby is (or will be), and the goldfish is a coldwater fish. Regardless of all that, they will all almost certainly die or be adversely affected by being in a non-cycled tank. That is really where you two should probably start.
 
Welcome to AA!

Good info given above. :)

When your tank is cycled, you should add more Cherry Barbs....make sure you have atleast 2 females for each male, that will help with the fighting and also keep the males from harassing the females. For a 20g, you would be fine with a total of 6-7 Cherry Barbs....but not until your cycle is finished.
 
Welcome to AA!

Good info given above. :)

When your tank is cycled, you should add more Cherry Barbs....make sure you have atleast 2 females for each male, that will help with the fighting and also keep the males from harassing the females. For a 20g, you would be fine with a total of 6-7 Cherry Barbs....but not until your cycle is finished.


I ran my tank fishless for a week and a half. When I got the fish, the guy @ the pet store (who refered me to AA) gave a chunk of a used filter and a a handful of pebbles from a tank. Now since I started cycling my tank, its been running for 2 1/2 weeks. How many more weeks do you think I would have for cycling?
 
It depends on a lot of factors, temperature, feedings, etc. The best thing would to do would be to get an API Freshwater Master Test Kit and test your parameters which will give us and you a better idea of how far you are into the cycle. Also, we have a member on here who also has a dragon goby or two, only in an 80g Brackish planted tank. Her name is DragonFish71. Maybe send her a pm and I'm sure she'd be able to give a lot of help on your dragon goby. Good luck :)
 
Thanks everyone one for the help and advice. I know in the future we are planning on upgrading the tank to a 50 + gallon tank...right now like I said it's only a 20 gallon...I also have a 10 gallon that we aren't using. Do you think the moor would be better off in a 10 gallon?
 
yea, goldfish need a lot of water. they are very messy (pee a lot) and get very large. the moor would not be happy in a 10 gallon. i wouldn't even put the barbs in a 10, they are very active swimmers and need at least a 20 gal (pref. long) IMO.

definitely get a test kit, and you should probably be doing daily PWCs since you have fish and are still cycling. remember .25 or higher ammonia will burn their gills. high nitrites will also poison them.
 
Well how big is your goby right now? +1 on adding him to the 50, I also suggest you look into setting that up as a brackish water tank. The goby will probably survive in freshwater but I am assuming that he will do much better brackish. The moor should be OK in the 20, I don't know if you could put the barbs in there also and add a couple more to prevent aggression and increase their comfort level, but that will probably max out that tank. You could use the 10 for QT. Or, if possible, you could get rid of the black moor. Just to let everyone know I do like goldfish, but trying to help you figure out what is best for everyone :) Could you get a pic of your algae eater? If it is a pleco it will outgrow both the 10 and 20 (depending on if it's a common pleco or not) . I don't know if plecos do good in brackish water or not either so if you do end up making the 50 BW you might want to check into that as well.

Long story short if I was in this situation I would do something like this:

10 QT
20 FW about 6 Cherry barbs and moor or just 10 cherry barbs
50BW goby/ algae eater (depending on if the AE can do brackish)

But it is your tank! I'm just helping you brainstorm :) No matter what you do I request pics because I love pictures! :D
 
well, we took the moor back today because he wasn't as active and i got 3 more barbs. i was looking at one site about brackish water, and it said the process for it can take up to 4 years...? if some one can maybe varify that? my goby is 8 inches long right now and he is doing very well he's very playful and he's always full of energy.

The algea eater we have is an otocinclus...he's only supposed to get maybe 2 inches long. He's amazing to watch , he's all over the place.

And as of today. the 6 six barbs are very happy and always playing, the males still do show some "aggression" but only to the other males and it doesn't last that long....i think one of them may be ready to spawn, his color is started to get very vivid
 
Hmm I am not sure about BW taking 4 years, but I don't know that much about it. Otos are very efficient little guys, I am waiting on 4 of them for my tank. Glad to hear the barbs are doing better. With them it is definitely the more the merrier :)
 
you should get a couple more otos. they like being in groups, i guess they can get even more playful in a group. i think they're so cute :) if you do end up getting a bigger tank, you should try BW out. i don't think it takes 4 years. you should send a PM to DragonFish71, i know she's got a brackish tank with a dragon goby in it. it's wicked cute :)
 
I replied to your PM with some links that helped me.

I'm not sure what site you're referring to and why they state it takes 4 years for a BW set up but I'd really love a link to that. I'm all about debunking if necessary :)

I started our BW tank in Aug '09. Got the 80 setup off CL for my b-day. By Oct it was fully cycled, planted, stocked and the salinity slowly being raised. 4 years my tail pffft.


And yes, the goby will do much better in BW. They are wild caught in the Southern US, swampy brackish waters, not tank raised. The dealers acclimate them slowly to FW, but that isn't their natural environment.
 
here is the site i had found about the tank taking 4 years to become brackish

Starting a Brackish Aquarium, what you need and what you can keep.

"All of the fish listed above migrate down the estuary to the ocean when they are several years old, so you will have to mimic this the best of your ability. Buy all of your inhabitants young and start this tank with around 2 tablespoons of marine salt per gallon of water. Every 6 months, add an additional tablespoon of salt per gallon of water during water changes. Stop when you are adding about 7 tablespoons of salt per gallon of water or when your hydrometer measures a reading of 1.020-1.025. This should take about 3-4 years and they should not be rushed into full marine water. Keep in mind NOT to add the salt directly to the tank."

It kind of confused me after reading that, seeing as how everyone who i've spoken with say its easy going with BW.
 
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