Bully time out

[Smojak]

1of 3 fish in 20 gal tank has been relentlessly chancing one other fish and nipping its tail.

I got one of the small breeding containers that sits in the same tank, and put the aggressor in it.

How long should I leave it in there?

Is leaving it in the small container going to stress in out?

 

[elizae]

What fish is it?

 

[Smojak]

Tiger barb vs green tiger barb

 

[Delapool]

Famous for unfortunately.

 

[fearlessfisch]

Tiger barbs often become much less nippy in larger groups. Usually it's recommended that you keep at least six. No guarantees, though; sometimes you just get a tough guy. You could either rehome the bully (or all three, since tiger barbs really prefer to be in larger schools), or add more barbs in the hope that a larger school will reduce the aggression.



You didn't mention if you have other fish in the tank. If you don't have any other fish, you could probably have a school of 12 in a 20-gallon. If you do have fish, try going to aqadvisor.com and typing in your stocking list and tank size, and see how many more your tank might support.

 

[Smojak]

Tiger barbs often become much less nippy in larger groups. Usually it's recommended that you keep at least six. No guarantees, though; sometimes you just get a tough guy. You could either rehome the bully (or all three, since tiger barbs really prefer to be in larger schools), or add more barbs in the hope that a larger school will reduce the aggression.



You didn't mention if you have other fish in the tank. If you don't have any other fish, you could probably have a school of 12 in a 20-gallon. If you do have fish, try going to aqadvisor.com and typing in your stocking list and tank size, and see how many more your tank might support.

Right now I have a tiger barb, green tiger barb and cherry barb. The bigger tiger is aggresive to the mid-size green barb. Interestingly neither of them mess with the very small cherry barb.

The tank hasnt cycled yet (a little over a month) so I dont want to add more fish just yet. The agression didnt start until two weeks ago...I'm betting the water is leading to the aggression, but dont know how to handle it.

 

[elizae]

I had a school of cherry barbs, and all of them ended up passing except for one and this tiny cherry barb harassed the entire tank (angels, cories, tetra, everything).

All barbs are schooling fish. Fish don’t like to school with different colored fish, hence why when you might get black skirt tetra and albino skirt tetra or glow skirt tetra, they do not school together because they simply look different even though they are the same fish. I would recommend maybe rehousing the Tiger barbs or the cherry barb, and whichever you are left with you should get a bigger school of. He might be picking on the other tiger barb because they are mildly similar, and since he could care less about the cherry he leaves it alone and focuses on his main threat.

Water quality could be the issue, but the aggression will always be there once the water quality is solved until fish are removed/added