Tiger barbs.. Gulp! Advice and comments appreciated

[Martinspuddle]

I agree with @black ghost your Tigers are far too fat.

I only fed my fish three days, Monday to Wednesday with defrosted frozen foods. On a Monday after their waterchange they also get half a cucumber or aubergine (neither is blanched) and I leave it until it's gone, usually by the following day.

If anything, I consider I fed my fish too much.

[BAINBRIDGE]

Thanks everyone for taking a look and responding. I'll put them on a diet. I forgot to mention that I do fast them for 1 day per week, but point taken if they're too fat they're too fat.

The flake I use is tetra tropical formula and I crumble it in with submerged fingers to stop it sitting in the surface.

Apart from the blood worm and veg, what other non dried food are recommend?

Regarding medication, the only time I medicated the main tank resulted in a disasterous crash which killed many fish, so I'm really reluctant to medicate the whole tank. I can however fire up the quarantine tank, remove the fatty and medicate her in isolation.

[Martinspuddle]

Apart from the blood worm and veg, what other non dried food are recommend?

My fish get frozen Bloodworm, Brineshrimp in Garlic, Cyclops and Daphnia. Occasionally they get Herons Tropical Tablets Stick-On-Glass for the Ancistrus.

[plankton]

I only use pellets and granules, have done for a number of years now, and find I get a lot less bloat and digestive problems (all from Heron).
The fish do well on it as well!!
They also get frozen (mixed) and a starve day. Fresh veg (not blanched, just washed) like courgette for the plecs with algae wafers.

[fr499y]

Herons here too, mainly micro pellets and colour pellets with the odd wafer/stick on tablet to make them work for their food I feed when I remember which is usually every other day.

[Martinspuddle]

I case your wondering where Herons food are, here's the link: Herons Pet World

[black ghost]

Apart from the blood worm and veg, what other non dried food are recommend?

The bloodworms that you feed, they need to be bright red, just as they are when they’re alive. A lot aren’t, and these will invariably cause health issues. If they’re not bright red don’t use them.
Frozen... brine shrimp, daphnia, cyclops, mysis, glassworms, in fact any and all that are small enough.

Live foods are even better, but more difficult if you’re buying them because you need to get them as soon as the shop gets them, before they start dying, although even the shops don’t always receive them soon enough.

I’ve always used Tetra flakes. The key here is to feed them less, only what they’ll eat in about 30 seconds (tigers can get their fill even in 30 seconds). Feed less and always release it below the surface.

Re the meds, which one did you use? Waterlife meds will not cause any crashes, and if you do medicate, I think all your females might benefit from it. With some issues you need to treat the tank aswell as the fish. And isolating fish for treatment causes stress, which can hamper the treatment.

Put them on a crash diet first. If you went away for a fortnight right now they wouldn’t suffer, so be a bit mean. Be cruel to be kind.

[BAINBRIDGE]

@blackghost I used an Interpet product for finrot at the stated dose. The fish seemed to turn sedated and the next morning was a scene of devastation.

They're on day 3 of their crash diet today, and after some maintenance I'll give them a little bit of food.

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll also buy some heron food and report back.