On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:45:51 GMT, Dave Peck wrote:
My fish a
6 tiger barbs (3 green, 2 wild, 1 albino)
1 red-finned black shark
4 little cory cats
2 blue flame tetras (aka colombian tetras?)

I just added the tetras and 2 cories 2 days ago. I moved around the
decorations, but the shark still got a bit riled; could he/she have hurt
Sparkle?

Hi Dave.

More likely the other tigers picked on Sparkle; they do have a
tendency to do that until the pecking order is established, or
when they feel like it! Mine did that until there were just
three left, and nobody messes with them.

I suggest you either add more so they are in a bigger group, that
way the same fish is less likely to get all of the abuse, or
perhaps get used to it - it's typical barb behaviour.

As for the hurt fin, it depends how bad it is as to how much to
worry. When I've had minor injuries but the fish is still swimming
around as usual, I ignore it and it heals. When the fish is hiding,
I put it in a breeding net box for some isolation until it heals.
(Actually I usually put a pair in; single ones seem to give up and
die, pairs seem to recover as long as they are the two gentlest
ones.) If the wound gets as far as the fin just being sticks,
or a patch of pink or red skin, I would say your barb has had it;
mine never recovered from that.

Barbs - nice to look at, and buggers to keep.


--
Flash Wilson
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I'm an advocate of sex before marriage.
Otherwise I wouldn't have had any at all."