can a tiger barb take out a section of fin like this?

[djsaltynuts]

i got 4 tiger barbs 2 were killed by eachother 1 was eaten so i added 5 more down the line. i also had a black ghost knife who was doing fine in the tank for months but was found at the top if the tank torn to shreds not too long ago. anyway someone in the tank is doing some serious nipping and eliminating entire sections of fin in one bite which killed a barb yesterday. anyway my dominant redhump geo has gotten the same section of fin taken off twice in the past 2 weeks. does this look like it couldve been done by a tiger barb? the geo is still relatively small i figured it was the starry night because of how aggressive the geo is but i have reason to believe it was not the starry night. and do you guys think adding more tiger barbs would be the move or just removing them from the tank all together?

 

[Deadeye]

It definitely could if it wanted to. I’ve seen them do worse, killing a fish with a single bite (not much damage, but hit a good spot). Mine does chase other fish around all the time, and has made some large bites (the rainbow cichlid is equally responsible though).
What else is in the tank? There are probably a good number of things that could do similar damage. The bite shape does look like a cichlid did it.

 

[djsaltynuts]

It definitely could if it wanted to. I’ve seen them do worse, killing a fish with a single bite (not much damage, but hit a good spot). Mine does chase other fish around all the time, and has made some large bites (the rainbow cichlid is equally responsible though).
What else is in the tank? There are probably a good number of things that could do similar damage. The bite shape does look like a cichlid did it.

i have a peacock gudgeon(which i honestly have no idea if itll make it being such a small fish)
a macaw cichlid
a starry night cichlid
2 rainbows
2 fully grown yoyo loaches
3 demon earth eaters
4 redhump earth eaters
a gourami
and 2 zig zag eels that i havent seen in a week or two? the redhump is a real prick and im quite surprised anything would mess with him besides the starry night or macaw. but a tiger barb was found floating yesterday with the exact same wound and nothing else wrong

 

[Deadeye]

If the starry night mentioned is a polleni, it could be a possible culprit. Rainbow fish can be mean but I’ve never seen one do any real damage. Doubt the gourami would bite. I can’t really comment on the weaponry for
Tiger barb sounds like a good candidate, quite fearless.

On a side note, don’t worry about the eels. They are probably doing great. I’ve had a peacock disappear for months before I found him. I’m surprised he lived, this was a long time ago and I didn’t know about their specific diet. I guess he was feeding off of all the carcasses left by the 3 pacu.

 

[djsaltynuts]

If the starry night mentioned is a polleni, it could be a possible culprit. Rainbow fish can be mean but I’ve never seen one do any real damage. Doubt the gourami would bite. I can’t really comment on the weaponry for
Tiger barb sounds like a good candidate, quite fearless.

On a side note, don’t worry about the eels. They are probably doing great. I’ve had a peacock disappear for months before I found him. I’m surprised he lived, this was a long time ago and I didn’t know about their specific diet. I guess he was feeding off of all the carcasses left by the 3 pacu.

thats awesome to hear because i have a super deep sand bed for them. as for the starry night its a bleekeri actually and the rainbows are rainbow cichlids. the rainbow cichlids and bleekeri go back and forth because theyre of a similar size and have always been rivals but its been months since ive seen any damage to the rainbows fins which is why i eliminated the starry night as a suspect but he was removing quite large portions of fin from them when he was nipping.the geo is also challenging the starry night for dominance in some regard. do you guys know if the tiger barbs have a somewhat expandable mouth or something?

 

[Deadeye]

Bleekeri, close enough lol.
Rainbow cichlid may have done it, mine has made some decent bites.
Found this picture online:

Nowhere near like a cichlid’s mouth can do, but they’ve got a pretty big mouth. Also they do have teeth.

If it is alone and the rest of the school is gone, it would turn to other fish to attack.

 

[djsaltynuts]

so if theyre in a constant shoal they will ignore other fish completely? because ill just feed them to the pike if theres a high probability of them continuing to bother my cichlids fins. i also very much wanted a knife fish and a large part of the tank is designed specifically for a knife fish do you think i could get away with adding another one if i grow it out to 5 or 6” before adding it in? and if i did this and had more tiger barbs would the knife be safe? ik knife fish and cichlids can be pretty risky but i have sufficient rock work and spiderwood.

 

[Deadeye]

Don’t know too much on knives, sorry.
With tigers, they work like this:
1 is looking for something to attack.
Schools of 2-5 often will kill each other off until there is just one
6-8 has a much better chance of working
8+ and they really just focus on each other.
They still can be nippy with other fish in large schools, but at a big size they focus most of the aggression on themselves, similar to many characins.

 

[djsaltynuts]

i assume when a tiger barb singles itself off and starts breathing heavy its being picked on? i almost never see any aggressive behavior but one or two will do that every once in a while sometimes they bounce back a day later. should i not see any of this behavior and when that behavior goes away is it an indication that the group is finally big enough?

 

[duanes]

Post a pic of your Paratilapia "bleekeri", it would not surprise me to be th culprit
I put bleekeri in quotes, because it is not a valid name.
It doesn't matter what it was sold to you as, the name is invalid, and considered a synonym for polleni.
There are a number of species in the genus Paratilapia.
P polleni
P typus
P andapa
and a few other variants known by collection location
like P ambalovao
or P nosy bee and more

above is P andapa (also known as large spot0
and below, P polleni AKA small spot