Green Tiger Barb - problem

MckinneyFish

I have 3 green tiger barbs that I bought about 2 months ago for my 55 gallon tank. One has always been substantially smaller than the other two but has always seems healthy and active. Today when I turned he lights on I noticed the smallest one was just floating at the top (right side up). Thinking maybe it was sleeping I touched it with my finger and it just let me push it around. It is breathing but I cannot get it to eat anything. I put it in my quaratine tank; when I first put it in it swam around for a couple minutes then it went back to the top. Recently it has moved to the bottom and it is just sitting there.

My tank includes :
3 tiger barbs
3 spotted cory cats
1 powder blue Dwarf Gourami
1 black ghost knife
1 albino Bristlenose Pleco
1 molly
1 albino bichir
1 blue angelfish

and none of the other fish are showing any signs of stress or disease. The barb also has no signs of parasites or disease other than its behavior.

Any ideas what this might be?

Thanks!

MckinneyFish

He died
Posted via Mobile Device

Romad

Sorry about Mr. Barb. Sometimes it's hard to know why a fish dies when they show no outward sign of disease or behavior that you can pinpoint to an actual problem.

How are the water params? Do you test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates??

Also, a group of 6 or 8 of these guys would be preferable to keep stress levels and aggression to other fish down. I've got 11 in my 75 gallon and they're great schoolers and swimmers.

KendraMc

one thing. tiger barbs are aggressive. i started with 5 and got a bully who killed one and severely damaged the others. they were all about the same size. i have 9 now and no problems. i would recommend getting more. and keep in mind that fish can bully each other without any actual physical damage. the stress of being near a bully can kill too.