Gourami attcking bright colored fish >_<

[mimi13chan]

My Golden Gerami , Gemini is very peaceful with my mollies. And today my father got me a new mollie which was bright oranges,red, and yellow. A firey Mollie and my Gourami was attcking it biting the fins and really damaging the fish and chasing it down. Whats wrong? I took out the bright fish and she is back to normal.
What was wrong with the new fish, that made her attack?

 

[Colisa lalia]

Ok here's the easy answer. The color of the molly was like that of the gourami and it took it personally. Here's what really happened. In the wild most animals are stimulated almost constantly by their same species. Your gourmai without the school it would experience in the wild was just building up rage. If you added a bunch of gouramis and got rid of the mollies you could have a beautiful and very natural set up. Or you can let the gourami die of age and then add the molly again.

 

[nonamethefish]

It is probably because the molly is a newcomer, not neccesarily the coloration. Besides, wildtype golds are blue.

How big is the tank?

 

[jerky1280]

I was told that 2 gouramis in a tank is the max - F/F or M/F. I have 35 gallon that has a gold gourami that constantly picks on a smaller blue gourami. Would introducing more gouramis calm them down? I'm confused.

 

[Colisa lalia]

Yes adding more gourami will clam them down. Let's suppose the fish's aggression level is 4 and a female is 2. Alright so let's add three more. Let's say you will end up with two males and three females. And a sub dominant male counts as a female 4+2+2+2+2=14
12/5=2.4. In your tank right now you have two males so 4+2=6 6/2=3 As you can see the aggression level decreases. So add more, or you could get a bigger tank.

 

[Soy4soy]

That bit about only having 2 gouramis in a tank as the max might need a little backup. My lfs has a dozen or so in their 10gal tank.

I'll buy that bit about it being without its' own species. Fish seem to get funny that way.

 

[Doomhed]

you have a male gourami. without a female it assumes the bright colored fish is another male. if there was a female and her saw the other fish show no interest, then her would be happy being the Alpha in the tank. this fish was the wrong colors.

and noname, in the wild they are a dark grey and show red when angry. seing a bright colored fish w/ red and orange sets off their anger reflex. this is why he attacked it.

 

[Jubilee]

Gouramis are territorial by nature. I agree the newcomer was seen as an intruder. You should remove the gold gourami for a few days and add the molly. After his time out, put the gourami back in and maybe rearrange some of the tank decor for good measure. The gourami is now the newcomer, and it should be good.