Control aggression by number

[rage]

I thought I'd share my little experience.

I had 5 tiger barbs in a 10 gallon tank, there was 1 dominant fish that chased others around a little but they all seem to be ok.
Sometime last week, I needed to cycle a 29G so I moved 2 to it. One was the dominant barb and it harassed the other one so bad, it had to hide behind the sponge filter all day long.
In the other tank, 1 became dominant and it did the same to one other barb to the point I thought it was dead.

I switched off and put the 2 dominant ones in the 29G and 3 weak ones in the 10G. In the 29G, the more dominant one harassed the 2nd dominant one just as bad as before. The 3 in the 10G got along.

I put all 5 back in the 10 and now all is well again. There is hardly any aggression any more.

[troy tucker]

Barbs are a schooling fish. Fish like Tetras, Barbs, and even some Cichlids do much better in larger number. You could add a lot more. They would even be happier, less stress. The number help spread aggression over the group. No one fish is getting all the aggression.

[mredman]

Aggression

Now I understand why some religious groups promote polygamy. It spreads out the aggression...

Mike

Barbs are a schooling fish. Fish like Tetras, Barbs, and even some Cichlids do much better in larger number. You could add a lot more. They would even be happier, less stress. The number help spread aggression over the group. No one fish is getting all the aggression.

[Brentpitt]

Now I understand why some religious groups promote polygamy. It spreads out the aggression...

Mike

There may be food for thought there, but I suspect some of our ladies may take exception.

[ptran]

[rage]

There may be food for thought there, but I suspect some of our ladies may take exception.

I think the dominant male is the aggressor, if he has more wives, the ladies may get "harassed" less.