Tiger barbs are voracious eaters and as omnivores, they'll eat just about any kind of fish food. A varied diet based on a good staple of prepared foods and accentuated with frozen foods, live foods and fresh veggies makes for happy fish.

That said, it sounds like you've got an aggressive gourami (not surprising as blue gouramis are one of the more aggressive species). I wouldn't count on your tiger barbs growing up and not getting beaten up. I'd move the fish to separate tanks permanently before the gourami kills anymore of the barbs.

 

+1

If you have any desire to continue to keep other species (including barbs) I would really consider re-homing the blue gourami or taking it back to the LFS.

 

I had a blue gourami with my angel, nipped him like crazy, but then my gourami died, problem solved lol.

 

i don't have a separate tank...................
another question, my tank has been getting brown spots on the glass. i wipe off the brown stuff off, 48 hours later: it returns, and not in the same place. is this a problem?

 

p.s. i think the barbs are fine now with blue.............. yeah, he will chase them around the tank like a 5 yr old chasing seaguls on the beach, but i think they are gunna be ok. maybe blue is doing me a favor by filtering out the weak and scronny.