I posted here a few days ago about my newly acquired pair of dwarf gouramis, yet another badly advise decision by a well thought of fish shop (not now !) One is hiding most of the time but the other is causing me great concern.

He is being terrorised by my tiger barbs ( lfs knew I had these) and everytime he attempts to come out of his " cave" he is chased and nipped until he gives up and goes back in, its so sad.

So, the dilemma is should I remover him, or both ? I worry that the stress of catching and returning him will be too much for him as he seems so timid atlready but I cant see him having much of a life in the tank with things as they are.

If I do return him should I keep the other knowng they should be in pairs ? I couldnt risk getting another as same thing might happen.

I am finding this stressful and upsetting as really care about my fishy friends....also despair at lame info given at every corner, thank goodness for this forum !!!!

How many tiger barbs do you have? Usually if kept in a large enough group 8+ they leave everything else alone as they are busy 'fighting' themselves. I used to have 10 in a 55g with 1 dwarf Gourami and 2 Opaline Gourami, plus other fish, they never even seemed to notice the other fish.

If the gourami's are being harrassed, then yes, I would take them back, they are not the hardiest of fish and the stress caused by bullying will do them no good at all.

I agree, I have just bought 2 dwarf red honey gourami's, they are in a tank with 2 pearl gourami's and 6 tiger barbs. The tiger barbs like minxfishy said are completely un-interested, my dwarf gourami's swim with them sometimes or swim right through the middle of the school. The tiger barbs don't care lol.

I would suggest you return them both and choose another species better suited to living with the barbs.... remind us what size your tank is and we cna make some suggestions for you.