# Help Please ! My fish are attacking eachother



## !Dexter! (Sep 1, 2010)

I have a 60l tank with guppies, platys, tertas and odessa barbs. Up until a few weeks ago it was a very peace full tank. 

Over the past week 3 of my guppies have been attacked (resulting in 1 death so far) their tails have either been completely bitten off or have a bite mark in them, also last night we came home to find one of the platys has been attacked, with his tail being bitten and a patch of scales missing from his head. 

All the guppies and platys are males. 

The only thing I can think is that it is the platys and guppies attacking eachother as all the other fish stay towards the middle to bottom of the tank and only come to the top to feed whereas the guppies and platys stay at the top. 

Has anyone come across this before?

Thanks for your help


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## _simon_ (Nov 27, 2007)

I'd be more inclined to think it's the barbs fin nipping but see what others think.


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## !Dexter! (Sep 1, 2010)

_simon_ said:


> I'd be more inclined to think it's the barbs fin nipping but see what others think.


Thank you, we did think that but then they pay no attention to the rest of the fish what so ever. We have 3 of them and they just chase eachother around. 

Would make sense if it was them as they are going for the flowing tails, as the tetras have been left alone (and are probably too quick for them) 

Thanks for your help


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

i would say its the barbs too, thats a lot of different species for a small tank, i have a 60L which i did have a group of 6 male guppies in with 5 cory cats, it seemed pretty well stocked at that to be honest, they guppies were always chasing each other and had little room to escape, so i would say with all the different fish it may be somewhat crowded. the barbs also need to be in a larger group too to allow the chasing/nipping tendencies to be spread throughout their own kind moreso. maybe rehome the barbs to someone with a larger tank who can add to their numbers and see how things go. keep up with the water changes to heal up the nipped at fish :2thumb:


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## lionfish (Jul 15, 2009)

_simon_ said:


> I'd be more inclined to think it's the barbs fin nipping but see what others think.


^^^^THIS^^^^ ALL barbs are fin nippers , hence they shouldn't be housed with any fish with long , flowing fins , eg male guppies , male Bettas , Angelfish etc


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## !Dexter! (Sep 1, 2010)

Thanks everyone  

Witnessed it first hand last night the barbs nipping the others. 

Am going to take the guppies out and give them to my brother. 

Does anyone know why the fin nipping has only just started? We've had our tank for quite a while with the barbs being in there for about a month. This has only started to happen in the past week 

Thank you


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## goldie1212 (Mar 5, 2010)

boredom most likely, or they are becoming adults and are showing their true colours. barbs need to be in big groups to allow the agression to be dispersed, then no 1 fish will be picked on until death, they will move on to other fish in the group. you really need a bigger tank and group of the barbs, or rehome them. i would go for at the very least 6-8 fish. as said, you already have a lot of different types of fish in there, and most need to be in groups of at least 6 fish to be happy. you tank simply wont accomodate all these fish comfortably for long. maybe look into a 2nd hand tank which is a bit larger so allow them more space. imagine being shut in a cupboard with 10 other people always in your face, i think you may start to bite too having no place to avoid them. even adding a ton of live plants will help, it will break lines of sight, lower nitrates between weekly water changes (poor water quality will also stress fish) and they can also occupy themselves nipping at the plants instead of each other as much.

minimum tank size for odessas is 3ft long due to their fast swimming, and ideally not to be kept with slow moving very peaceful fish-

Odessa Barb Profile

hope this helps.


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