Community tank: Gouramis getting chewed on...

[Fongule]

We had a Gourami die today with some bite marks around it's body. Our other one has one big chunk out of his side and a few fin nips as well. I have strong suspicions that it's the Blue Ram we got about a week ago that is the culprit here, but i'm not totally sure. Do gouramis fight each other? I'm not home that much though and can't determine if it's possibly another fish i should consider getting rid of. DOes any1 have any clue if any of these would be prone to attacking Gouramis?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Here's what was in the tank:
3 Platies (1 male, 2 female)
3 African dwarf frogs
2 Gouramis (1 is dead now)
2 Hatchets
2 Khuli Loaches
2 Swordtails (1 male 1 female)
1 Glass CAtfish
1 Glass Knife
1 upside down catfish
1 Lyre Tail Mollie (MAle)
1 Blue Ram
1 Clown Loach
1 Betta (Male, very passive one though)
1 Bala Shark
1 picasimus Pleco

 

[CAPSLOCK]

What kind of gouramis? They are in fact prone to attacking each other, especially if they are male and added at different times. This is much less likely if they are dwarf gouramis, or if the tank is very large. The betta is also related to gouramis and may have had something to do with it...

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

wow... i hope you have an exceptionally large tank because some of those fish get huge. if not this could cause aggression between the fish.

 

[usacutie81]

gouramis are supposed to be kept in schools of at least 4-6 to spread out the inevitable bullying, so it's possible they just attacked each other. As far as whether it can be any of the other fish, I personally don't know enough about them to answer that. Maybe someone else can shed a bit more light.

 

[Endl98]

what type of upside down catfish? some of them will attack fish ,they are attracted to the slime coat . it happens when they sleep.the cats come out at night.

the only usd that i know of that is pretty safe is the nigriventris.

 

[MissFishy]

Wow, I hope you have a huge tank too...you have a lot of fish. A lot of those fish would also NOT be recommended to be in the same tank at all, and a lot of them need schools and should not be kept alone (i.e. bala sharks, glass catfish, etc.) Gouramis are usually not recommended to be kept together with other gouramis, bettas, or paradise fish.

What size tank do you have and how long have all those fish been in there?

 

[Fongule]

Well some of the fish are temporary members of this tank until they get big enough to go into another tank. This would include the Clown Loach and the Bala Shark and some others i think (my Girlfriend is really the tank boss). The Gourami's are dwarf gouramis and I'm pretty sure they both were male. They had been living peacefull with eachother and most of the other inhabitants of the tank for 3+ months. The only new additions are the Swordtails and the Ram. I'm not totally sure exactly what type of upside down catfish it is but he's tiny, less than an inch, so I doubt he's the culprit.

 

[phil59]

My fish started acting very strangely and some died I was not sure what was wrong but it seemed to be worse on a morning so I stayed up and watched during the night and sure enough the upside down catfish was terrorising everything in my tank he went back to the shop!!!!

 

[Fongule]

A new twist to the saga... Apperently the Gourami that is still alive is a female because she's pregnant. She's showing an egg sack just behind her front fins. Is there something that makes a pregnant Gourami aggresive enough to kill the male?

 

[Seleya]

What size is the tank? If you don't know, what are the dimensions?