Confused

[chiara]

Hi there, I am quite new to tropical fish keeping as I received just over a month ago my first little tank as a present. It is a small tank (30 liters) that cycled apparently well with a betta splendens, and a couple of corys (one unfortunately died during the cycle).
I went back to the shop after about a month after I got it with a sample of the water which they said was great and the person helping me in the shop said I could keep Dwarf Gouramis with the fighting fish so he sold me two males ( I found out that their gender just today on this website).
The fighting fish was acting a bit shy with the new tank mates for a couple of days but the third day he started being really aggressive chasing the Gouramis around the tank constantly.
After few hours they looked very stressed so I went back to the shop and they say I should remove the betta, which I did, and they sold me two new tank mates : two baby angel fish.
Today I was browsing websites to collect infos about how to look after my tank and found out that my tank is far too small for Angel fish!! I also found that two male Dwarf Gouramies shouldn't be kept toghether in a small tank as they could fight (they actually chase each other around sometimes but they don't do often)and that they also need a bigger tank.

I feel very confused right now and I feel like I am not helped by my local shop with competent advice. I don't want my fish to suffer, so I would like help on what to do.
Will my Gouramis and Angel fish survive in that little tank?
Please help!

 

[Dark Wolf]

Hi and welcome!

Well it seems you have already learned one of the golden rules of tropical fish keeping; don't trust anything your local fish shop (LFS) employee tells you. They are only interested in making you part with your money, and are often very ill informed and give people poor advice as they have done with you.

You are correct, your angels will grow far too big for your current tank, angel fish need roughly 15-20 gallons, so i'd try and rehome them ASAP.

Sorry to keep on giving bad news, but your fears about the dwarf gouramis are correct as well, you should either keep them on their own or in large groups. If you do only have two they should be in a large tank with plenty of hiding space, which unfortunately you do not have. So it's up to you, you could either rehome one and keep one, or rehome both of them and decide on soemthing else to keep in your tank.

 

[AJGray]

im sorry but i trust my LFS dude hes told me what to keep together what to stay away from and told me straight

but what chaira has been told is kinda drastic just as most lfs wont sell same sex pairs of gouramis

 

[Dark Wolf]

Yeah, as always there a few expectations, and sometimes you can find a lfs with an owner who really knows his stuff, but most of the time they don't, and so it's better just to ignore most things they tell you.

 

[AJGray]

i do hear what your saying but you shouldnt jump in and say that they are all like that i find the smaller the fish shop the more likely the owner is to look ofter the fish, i trust 2 and thats it i wont accpet help off pets at home because they know nothing about everything

 

[Dark Wolf]

Yeah you're probably right, i'm probably just bitter from past poor advice. But the fact of the matter is, that the OP should not trust anything his LFS employee tells him, as they clearly understand nothing about keeping fish.

 

[chiara]

Thank you guys for your advice!

 

[rabbut]

chiara,
A word of advise for any feuture LFS visits. As stated above, most employees are clueless about fish, but there are some exceptions, where they do know what they are doing. Read up on two or three topics in the hobby prior to visiting a new shop, and grill the assistant, to see what they know. If they know their stiff, they will obviously know the answers to any questions you put to them. If they get most correct, they are probibly trustworthy, if they don't get many, or none, correct, they are un-trust-worthy and best ignored. Remember to grill each staff member seporately though, as everyone varies with their level of knowlage.
Happy fish keeping
Rabbut