# tiger barbs who care



## ElChef194 (Dec 25, 2011)

yesterday i noticed my old female tiger barb was keeping to herself a lot, hanging out in places she normally doesn't. every so often her school mates would swim up, check on her, give her a soft body nudge, and move on.

when i got home from work yesterday, i did my routine check on my fish, and when i got to the big tank, i noticed her body was under the driftwood. she had died in the 8 hrs i was working. i removed her body, and disposed of it.

i woke up this afternoon (it's my day off) and fed the fish, and when i got to the big tank again, the barbs were doing something i never expected to see: they were looking for their school mate. my girlfriend first noticed it, and said how sweet it was. i would just like to share this because it shows that the fish actually do care, so treat your fish right and they will reward you with so many good things.

on a side note, when i inspected the fish to look for cause of death (gill color, finage, possible mold growth, etc) i noticed that she was the fish with the scarred lip which in fact was not a scar, but her upper lip was almost completely off. i can assume that this led to infection of some kind though she only started acting strange yesterday.


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## Harley Quinn (Jan 6, 2012)

How long had you had her? Are the others of similar age?


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## ElChef194 (Dec 25, 2011)

2 of my 5 barbs are from day 1. the other three were 3 months younger. one of the original barbs is the one that passed. I have had then since they were too young to sex and she was about a year old when she died. maybe a year and 2 months assuming she was 2 months old when I bought her. none of the barbs are full size.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

It makes sense - one of the reasons people dislike tiger barbs is their nippiness, but they only nip outside of the group if the group is too small. They have to be able to recognize individuals or they would live like bumper cars. They have a community of sorts, with rank being very important to them. If she was a high ranking fish, then there would be a social gap.
I bred short finned Bettas, and sold a large group to an aquarist with a big planted tank. When I visited a few months later, he had multiple male pla-kat (fighting) Betta splendens co-existing in the same tank. His theory was that they had grown together, sorted out territory together, and would be fine as long as he didn't add to the tank. Apparently, it worked that way for over a year, until a few died, and mayhem broke out as they re-sorted territories. Fish can recognize individuals. 
Your tiger barbs may have killed their friend sparring, but that was the result of a secondary infection. They live in a rowdy world, but it is a social one.


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