so i have 4 tiger barbs in my 60 gal tank to help cycle it, and they won't eat. they've been in there for 4-5 days now and they won't eat.

i have some fake plants and a fake tree stump in there and when i enter the room and come anywhere near the tank, they hide from me, or when i turn any lights on.

when i put food (flakes) on top of the water, they don't eat it (they stay at the bottom most of the time) so it sits and dissolves and rots so i have to net it out.

when i sink the food, it floats around, bounces off them, one of them will eat a piece or two and ignore the rest, and they don't eat it. so i have to net it out again.

at this point, i put one of those 7 day feeder cubes in and i guess they will eat when they are hungry.


am i doing something wrong? why are they so timid and scared?
is the tank too big for them or something?

did you just get them. if so they may just be a little stressed from the move.

Keep the light off for a while don't feed for a while.
when they get hungry enough they will eat.

I would only use those 7 day feeders in an emergency if I was going on a trip and my auto feeder was on the fritz.

they can add a lot of total dissolved solids to the water and affect PH.
just continue to monitor the water quality.
you do have a good test kit?

Keep a close eye on the ammonia levels.
if they get above 20ppm do a 25% water change.
Get some bacteria starter from a friend or the LFS

be careful of the excess food, vacuum out any food that is on the gravel.
Good luck.

Thanks NeonShark "Make sure your temperature is above 75F. Fish stop feeding when the water is too cool."
I didn't even think of check the temp.

Tiger Barbs are usually very agressive feeders, In cycling with fish, you need good aeriation and filtration. Plants will help the fish to adjjust. Make sure your temperature is above 75F. Fish stop feeding when the water is too cool. Make sure your ph is below 7,5, Tiger Barbs come from water with a ph < 7.0.

i did just get them, they've been in since saturday night i believe, or friday night, but they are by themselves. i took the feeder out and turned the lights off, which is a little tricky because they are in my room in the basement, so it gets kinda dark down there.
anyways, the water temp is constant at 78F. i did a water change yesterday and tried to suck some of the food out of the gravel, but my syphon is about 3000 ft long so it was difficult to get a good strong suction (i need some practice with it yet lol)
i don't have bacteria supplement or a test kit yet (test kit on order from amazon, API maters kit i believe)

when i moved them i made sure to set the bag in the water for a while so they could acclimate to the temp, then i started putting some tank water into the bag before letting them out.

Get a water python gravel vacuum, they are great you connect it to a water spigot or the sink and if yo have good water pressure it will suck up just about anything.
you can also use it to fill tanks but I don't recommend it to fill up after a water change.

I recommend having a 20 gallon tank with noting in it but a air stone and a heater and use it to do the conditioning of the water before you add it bad to the main tank.
SInce I have so many tanks I use a 55 gal plastic drum with a large heater and air stone.