Mollies and Gouramis

[plocke]

>  
Help, I have two dalmation mollies that are picking on my two golden gouramis.  The LFS said these fish were compatible.  

Is this normal.  What to do?

Also in the tank are

4 serpae tetras
3 zebra danios
1 pleco
1 cory
1 twig catfish
1 red rainbow fish

 

[colesea]

What size tank?

Gourmais and Dalmations can be surface territorially oriented, and in a very small tank (10 gallon or 20 gallons) there may not be enough surface area to go around.

Sometimes fish get along under certain conditions, sometimes they don't. Tank size is specially one of those conditions. I would remove one or the other species to a different tank to prevent the aggression.
~~Colesea

 

[plocke]

Tank size is 26 gallons.  

Would this be considered too small of a tank?

Thanks

 

[colesea]

It could be if your dalmations and gourmais are fighting over it.  Gouramis grow a good 6"-8" and I've seen some large dalmations at a good 3". If you take that into account, think about how much "personal space" those fish might need regardless of the "one inch fish per gallon" rule.  I once had a 6" gold gourmai in a 30 gallon long with sevrums, pacu, dempsies, bala sharks, and oscars. Wouldn't you know it, that gourami was the bully of the tank. Chased all the fish out of her side all the time.  Up until the oscars got big enough to bully back<G>.

But anyway, it could be too small if your fish are too big for it and fighting over the surface of the tank. Watch them, observe who is chasing whom and when. You should be able to draw mental lines around who's territory is what.
~~Colesea

 

[JWright]

Here's the concern I would have...

Mollies prefer brackish conditions. Gourami's prefer soft water. Those two genenerally don't work well together...

Josh

 

[plocke]

As an update, one of my Gouramis, the female of the pair, died over the weekend  :-[.  

Since then, the mollies have stopped picking on the male (who was their main target).