Tankmates for Barbs, Danios, Minnows, and CAE

Byron

Yes, stress is the cause of almost all disease and health problems. And there are many sources of stress, some not what many would expect. Have a read of my article on stress.

Misomie

I've already read that article, that's why I'm guessing that stress caused the main problem. (Right now I have half of the tank lighten- until I get floating plants- and the majority of the fish spend most of their time in direct light.... Weirdos.)

I re-examined all my fish (I used a sinking pellet to attract the tiny feeders) and everyone seems normal with normal eyes, shape, and energy. My last Tiger Barb is still hanging in there but the danios have begun to abuse her. I captured her and my Rosy barb (tiger= easy in seconds, rosy= a few minutes then I swapped for a bigger net) and placed them in one of my 10 gals (I filled it with the gravel from my 20 and attached the filter with a healthy bacteria colony, so I guess it is pretty much cycled already).

Another question involving mixable fish:
In my twenty gallon I plan to add my Crayfish (who is currently in a 1 gal) after I heat blast the thing with my new heater (any/all diseases in there will die a painful death). Anyways I want to eventually add some fish to it. I was thinking of fish that never leave the top of the tank (he can't eat what he can't catch). Do Hatchetfish EVER leave the top few inches?

Byron

I have no direct experience of crayfish, but Ihave read that they should not be combined with fish as they will eat any. Can't say beyond that.

You are aware of the issues with Tiger Barb...just in case you may be thinking of more?

Misomie

Ah, ok. I might just use that extra space to grow floating plants. No plant gan grow fast enough to escape my danios. Those pigs.

By issues, do you mean aggression? I haven't had a problem with them picking on my other fish (except one of the young ones was stupid enough to think that he could catch a danio. Once my young zebra was staring intently at something and the barb snuck up and bit him. The danio then turned around, chased, and attacked the barb. It was actually really amusing to watch. XD). That's why none of my fish are slow or push-overs.

I really liked my tiger barbs and I fully intend to get more. I want to get a school of nine if my Rosy survives or a school of twelve if he doesn't.

Byron

Yes I meant their aggressive behaviours. As long as there is a good sized group (no less than 8, but more is better) and in sufficient space (8 on their own in a 30g is considered minimum, with larger tanks allowing other species too), they can work. The natural nippiness will hopefully be contained within the shoal and that is fine. Sedate fish or long-fin fish should never be combined in any tank with TB.

Fish behaviour is a bit uncertain. All we know is that a certain species will normally behave this or that way, but environmental factors such as all those mentioned in the article on stress can affect fish and they may react either way. Another problem is that fish secrete pheromones, and other fish read these chemical signals. So an aggressive fish will be seen by other fish as aggressive, even if no physical contact ever takes place. This is highly stressful. When putting together a community tank (= more than one species) the normal expected behaviours of each species must always be considered and planned for, to avoid stress which can be unseen--until a fish suddenly gets diseased or dies. Stress is the root cause of almost all disease in fish, and as the article pointed out this chronic stress always shortens a fish's lifespan even if nothing else is apparent to us. To put it another way, the fish is very unhappy with its lot in life, and it wears out faster because it is constantly compensating for the stress.

Misomie

All my fish will be/are fast movers (ex. danio, minnow, ect.).

Basically all behavior is different in all animals, though selective breeding has a tendency to create these guidelines. In the barbs natural habbitat it must have been required for them to bne the way they are today. :3 (I know a lot about basic animal interactions and pheromones and such *taking AP Bio right now* It's rather interesting to test the effects of animals reading your pheromones. I want to be better at reading other animals emotions but people can be pretty dense to this)