I have 7 tiger barbs currently and they all seem to get along. The only problem i have is 1 of the tiger barbs picks on my angel fish and fin nips him. Should I remove the angelfish all together or just the 1 tiger barb causing the trouble?
Tiger Barbs
- Thread starter Sean3
- Start date
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What size tank is it?
I wouldnt isolate a single tiger barb. Unless you can rehome it to somewhere with some other tiger barbs the best option is to move the angelfish.
I wouldnt isolate a single tiger barb. Unless you can rehome it to somewhere with some other tiger barbs the best option is to move the angelfish.
Joe_D
Aquarium Advice Freak
I have have Tiger Barbs in the past. They can be fin nippers.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
Unfortunately, Tiger Barbs ( and most Barbs) are fin nippers so they never should go with frilly finned fish. I would remove the Angel and keep the school of barbs and understand that you really need to keep other fast moving non frilly fined fish like Angels or Guppies or long finned varieties with them. 
i also have some long finned tetras that the tiger barb doesn’t seem to have any interest in. Would this become a problem in the future? I was also considering getting 1 more angelfish and putting a divider in the middle of the tank. Do you think this would be a good idea?
As a short term measure while you figure things out and where to rehome things, a divider is fine. Longer term i dont think either the angelfish or your barbs would benefit from having their swimming space so restricted.
Fish are generally more active when lights are on, so aggression levels will lower in a darker tank.
Fish are just less active when the lights are off, i dont see just dimming the lights a little having much effect, but give it a go if you dont need the lights for live plants.
Its common practice when going away and leaving fish to fend for themselves for a while to turn off the lights so they are less active, lower metabolism etc, which in turn reduces the need to feed fish and do tank maintenance.
Its common practice when going away and leaving fish to fend for themselves for a while to turn off the lights so they are less active, lower metabolism etc, which in turn reduces the need to feed fish and do tank maintenance.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
What you have to realize is that not all fish can go together in an aquarium. What you have is a bad mix. It may be okay in the short run but at any minute on any day in any week in any month, etc, things can go South and you end up with either sick or stressed or injured or dead fish. It's better to mix the correct species and have a less stressful ( for the fish) aquarium than try to force the issue with bad mixes. Bad mixes only end up costing the aquarist a lot of money in medicines and fish in the end.
If you are dead set on keeping the Barbs, remove the Angel. If you are dead set on keeping the Angel, remove the Barbs. It is always nice to have 2 tanks. btw.
Regarding adding a second Angelfish, Angelfish are not angels by nature. They live in a hierarchy society so 2 Angels together can lead to problems if one is larger than the other or one is more established in the tank than the other. One will be the leader and the other the follower. This sometimes leads to problems when they both want to be leader.
It's best to keep domestic Angels as either singles or in groups of 4 or more. Even in a group of 4, one will be the leader and the rest followers only in a larger group, the aggression will be spread out to the other 3 fish and not all on the one. Wild Angelfish should always be in schools of at least 4 but preferably larger schools as wild Angelfish are schooling fish by nature. Similar threads
