I think my plants are killing my fish.

lucyblairs

I have two tanks one larger one and one smallish corner one and in both I have plastic plants with some live moss balls.
I have a catfish in each tank right now and the moss balls are just there to keep them happy but recently my other fish have taken a liking to them.
They play with them, tossing them up and down in the tank using my air stone and bubbles to help them move it, so I am used to seeing the moss balls in a diferent place every day.
However, the other day I noticed that one of my medium sized tiger barbs was missing. After about an hour of searching I found her dead stuck under one of the moss balls.
Should I get rid of the moss balls from the tank incase any more fish get traped by them?
They are my only live plants so I dont realy want to get rid of them.

Thanx

Lucy

Christople

I think that was just a freak accedent

Romad

Keep them but try to anchor them down so they don't float around. The fish will still nibble at them.

Sorry about your barb. Is there any chance that it died from something else and the moss ball just happened to land on top of it? That would have to be a pretty heavy ball for a fish to not be able to wriggle out from underneath. Especially a feisty barb.

Just a thought.

lucyblairs

I dont know.

My barbs have never been wildish.
They were always quite sluggish and slow compared to things such a the guppys and it was overnight.
I did start out with 4 tiger barbs - 3 females and 1 male and gradualy over time (about 3 months) I'v lost all of my females.
The first one I think I lost because of bad cycling but number 2 we couldnt work out why. (that was over a month and a half ago)

When we finaly found her under the ball she was already quite decomposed and so she must have been there overnight and possibly the day before (they hide quite a lot so if i cant see them i just presume they are playing)

What would be good for weighting the balls down?
They do sink on their own but even the slightest touch sends them flying everywhere.

Lucy

Byron

The barbs may be killing themselves, since you are losing so many. If you check out our profile of this fish--click on the shaded name Tiger Barb to see the profile--you will note they must be in larger groups, most sources recommend 8 or more, as they have a distinct "pecking order" within the group. They also need space; no mention here of tank sizes, but a group of 8 in at least a 30g with no other fish is recommended.

Byron.

Christople

you can tie them some where

lucyblairs

I know varvs are suposed to be together.
I was advised 5 together in a tank but at the time I bought the shop only had 4 in stock so i got them all and all 3 that have died were female.
I've got 2 new tiger girls recently to keep my male company but they are albino.
shouldnt make a diference aparently.

I havent put a tank size down because I dont know it.
They are in a corner tank that is such a strange shape that I wouldnt know how to measure it.

Christople

maybe a guestamit or do a water change and see how long or how many five gallon buckets it takes to fill it.

Blaxicanlatino

ive had my crystal wort kill one of my beloved dwarf corys T_T i loved her so....

redchigh

If a fish gets caught in plants, it was a weak fish to begin with... Probably on it's last leg.

Equate it to a person getting tangled up and dying in a pile of yarn.

As for the moss, if you want to keep it stationary, try to find some plastic (not plastic coated) hairpins, and pin them to the substrate.