Gourami Battles

[JohnnyC]

Hey all im brand new "fishing" and my girlfriend bought new a 20 gal tank and three powder blue gourami's "to build up the nitrogen levels says the pet store guy" for Valentine's Day. Now these guys are usually tame and just swim around but occasionally one chases the others around for no apparent reason sometimes they are close together other times the stick to their own little corner of the tank. I know that males can be agressive but why are they doing this? And why only periodically?

 

[silver dollars]

I have a even bigger problem

I have a bigger problem with my 2 neon dwarf gouramis. My female attacked my male yesterday and cut him up realy bad. There is a hole in his side where you can see the tissue hanging out I don't know why she did that but i'm worried now about him. I wish my girlfriend got me all that for Valentines Day*celebrate

 

[Shaunna]

Johnny, your Gourami are in relatively small living quarters. They aren't getting enough oxygen because they are producing too much waste and the bioload cannot keep up with it and it is turning into ammonia really quickly. How often are you doing water changes? I can't (well I can) believe that the lfs said to use three powder blues to cycle your tank. This kinda thing is usually reserved to minnows or zebra danios because of their hardiness. Do massive water changes very often and do not overfeed!

Silver, you need to remove your male and put him into a seperate tank and dose him with melafix and get him better with plaenty of clean fresh dechlored water. He may start getting picked on even more as his wound slows him down and makes him more vulnerable.

To both of you, Gouramis are in the same families as Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish) They have attitudes and they can be very territorial and aggressive. Even the females.

 

[fishlover1]

yea with the gouramis if you see them chasing around each other but theres no riped fin or injuries its normal.
every time i feed my gouramis my paradise,opeline,and moonlight gourami always go at it.
some fish stores put them as semi-agressive fish. its in there nature.

 

[silver dollars]

thanks for the information. in my 55G tank i have 4 silver dollars(metynnis hyspauchen), 5 cory cats, 2 blue rams, 2 golden rams(who are now raising a lot of 1 day old babies*SUPERSMIL ), 2 knight gobies, 2 dwarf gouramis, 2 golden wonder killies, 2 black hi-fin tetras, 2 angels, 2 black phantom tetras, 1 swegless tetra, and 1 male betta. i already knew that they were related to bettas. do you think that my betta could of done this and not my female gourami? also what other fish should i add to my tanks. i have a 75G livebearer tank, my 55G, a 29G were my golden rams & babies are, and a 28G. so any info on my gouramis and my tanks will help a lot!*celebrate

 

[FishGeek]

I agree with Shaunna, Johnny. Its not a good idea to keep that many Gouramies even in a establish tank of that size. I wouldnt listen to any LFS person unless you KNOW that they are talking the truth. 9 times out of 10 the main goal of an LFS is to get you to buy their products. Id do some more research, it might help you out to start here: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31669

 

[silver dollars]

I agree with them too Johnny. try to keep at least 2 to a tank, but never 3 unless you know they won't fight like mine did.Try adding in some cory cats to your tank.*celebrate

 

[Shaunna]

Silver dollars, if you wanted to add anyhting to your tank, which I don't know the adult sizes of some of your fish so I am not sure if you should or not, I would add some more tetras. Tetras like to be in schools of at least 6 or more. I can't remember if tetras are one of those fish that you want to keep in schools of evens or odds, but either way you need more tetras in order to get the full potential of these fish. They like to be in groups.

edit... Johnny, read up on the cycling stickies at the top of this forum and keep up on those water changes! Make sure you don't add anything else to your tank for a while and let your bacteria catch up to your bioload.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You don't need to keep 2 gouramis per tank... they do best as singles. A pair in a 20g might work, or if they aren't constantly pestering or doing damage, then all 3 can stay together. If you have lots of decorations and plants (real or fake) in there, that helps reduce fighting by making more territories and breaking up lines of sight. They aren't oxygen deprived unless they can't reach the surface... like bettas, gouramis can get oxygen directly from the air.

Silver dollars... I think it's likely that the betta did the biting to the gourami, they are related species and lots of male bettas are very territorial. I'd remove either both gouramis or the betta.

 

[Shaunna]

I was saying oxygen deprivation as the best way to describe what is going on inside his tank since it is not cycled. They can get oxygen, yes, but the ammonia in the water is probably quite high before a water change. Just another reason to research before you buy.

 

[JohnnyC]

Thaks for the help guys. The water has become a little brown as of late so I have upped the cycling times I have 3 plants in their as well if I did not mention earlier so the oxygen levels should be fine plus their is plenty of space for them to reach the surface. They do only chase eachother around there is no body or fin damage and like I said earlier sometimes they do other times the school for some odd reason and other times they are in 3 seperate spots. If I were to purchase another tank to possible seperate them what is the smallest size I could get for it as money is a bit of an object as is space.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

For one, a 2.5 is enough if it is heated/filtered, or anything above that (again, heated/filtered). You can get a complete 5g kit at Walmart for around $30.

 

[JohnnyC]

Would that really be big enough for a gourami?

 

[Shaunna]

Well, your are dwarfs so they don't need as much room as some of the others but I would recommend getting a 5 gallon. They are still a good size fish at adulthood and need room to swim around. They are quite active little fellas as I am sure you know!

 

[silver dollars]

My gourami is doing alot better now*SUPERSMIL *SUPERSMIL *celebrate *celebrate