Beginner Trouble!

[sforzauk]

I got two opaline gouramis yesterday; one male and one female. Whenever i see them the male charges at the female and I noticed that about a cm of the female's 'feeler' was missing. They are the only and first inhabitants of my 58 litre tank and I am not sure whether I am worrying about nothing or whether I should exchange the male for the female. Any suggestions?

EDIT:Thanks for the advice! I decided to exchange the male for a female because my tank already has a number of plants and I did not want three gouramis. They're a lot more peaceful and the bullied one is not shy anymore.
In the store they said that they would grow to a maximum of 10cm and that my tank would house at least 30cm. So with at least 10 more cm to spare, I was wondering if i would be able to get 1 or 2 dalmation mollies (max 6cm). I've read that they benefit from salt; can they do well without it/ will gouramis be harmed from it?

 

[reddannyh]

Provided your sure they are opposite sexes I would just leave them too it. It's natural for them to sort an order out. Is your tank planted? If not then I would be tempted to buy some plants so at least the bullied gourami can get away for a while.

 

[BFG]

I got two opaline gouramis yesterday; one male and one female. Whenever i see them the male charges at the female and I noticed that about a cm of the female's 'feeler' was missing. They are the only and first inhabitants of my 58 litre tank and I am not sure whether I am worrying about nothing or whether I should exchange the male for the female. Any suggestions?

Hi, I don't know if you've fishless cycled or anything (too late now if you haven't so keeping an eye on Ammonia and nitrite levels would be an idea with partial water changes) . One method of reducing the aggression is to get 2 females to every male so that his agression is divided between the two. That's what I've had to do with my pearls, and they seem to have settled down a bit now.

I also did exactly what reddannyh suggests - got lots of plants so theres places to hide. The agression reduced a lot almost instantly.

Be warned though, getting an extra female could get your tank close to fully stocked ( I can't remember how big opalines can get to) but using the " per gallon rule, you're at about 13" of fish max. My 3 pearls would therefore max out your tank, but as I say, I can't remember if opalines end up bigger / smaller .

 

[sylvia]

Opalines are a color morph of the three-spot gourami (trichogaster trichopterus). They get to 6" (so larger than pearls) and are also far more aggressive.

58 litres is approximately 15 gallons - which isn't large enough for even a single one of these highly territorial fish. Return both and go for something smaller. You will end up with your female dead otherwise.

Adding another female is certainly out of the question. In fact, you'd need to add two more as just adding one would result in that new fish being bullied constantly (while with two aggression is, at least, divided).

The minnimum tank size for three-spots is 20 gallons and each fish should have at least 10 gallons to tiself. As they can't realy be kept as pairs anyway, that means you can keep a single fish in a 20 or a trio in a 30. Nothing smaller than this will suffice unless all you plan to keep is the single (male) opaline.

The reason I say the male specificly is that, being territorial, they mind being confined to a small space somewhat less than females. Also, females don't do quite as well by themselves as males do seeing as they can be quite social if kept in a large enough group to divide aggression.

Idealy, like I said before, return both. Get yourself a trio of honey gouramies (colisa chuna/sota) instead. these grow to 1.5", are quite hardy and are far more peaceful. You'll still have room for a small school of tetras or small cory species (eg: pygmy) then.

Alternatively, return the female and stick with just your male opaline. Don't expect to be able to add any other fish - being confined to a small tank and being a highly territorial species, he's likely to attack and kill most tankmates.

 

[sforzauk]

Uhm...I don't know how to delete a post, so just ignore this

 

[nmonks]

Mollies need salt, period.

Yes, some people have kept them without salt, but usually in hard, alkaline water, and even then these fish are prone to things like fin-rot, fungus, and the "shimmies", a neurological disorder. If you want to enjoy happy and healthy mollies, keep them in slightly brackish water.

There is a pinned topic on this at the Livebearers section of this forum.

I just added to another thread about gouramis and salt here, so you might check that out. But in a nutshell, no, you can't add salt to a tank with the commonly traded gouramis.

I do wish aquarium stores would stop telling people mollies are freshwater fish! They're wonderful fish, but they should only be mixed with salt-tolerant plants and fish. Visit the Brackish section of the forum if you want to know more about brackish aquaria.

Cheers,

Neale

I've read that they benefit from salt; can they do well without it/ will gouramis be harmed from it?