Golden Gourami Vicious?

[Bushbaby]

I have only just started building up my fish tank.
I started off with a golden gourami, a tiger barb and a rainbow shark. I also had a placostomus (excuse my spelling) they all seemed to get on well, the shark chased my barb around a little but nothing bad. My Placostumus died a while after I got him and I was not sure why.
 
Today I went and got a few more play mates. I got a swordtail, a tiger barb as a friend for my existing one and a blue paradise fish.
 
A while after introducing them to each other I came back to find my swordtail's tail had been nipped off. THe gourami was pushing him around a bit. Was it him that attacked my swordtail. The others didn't seem very interested. Would it help to get more swordtails as back up or best to find him a new home?
 
Please help!
 
 

 

[CoryFever]

Gouramis can be quite aggressive when overcrowding occurs. How big is the tank? Water parameters? The more information the better. Try to upload pictures if you can. Another thing, tiger barbs are a schooling fish and should be kept in schools of 6 or more.

 

[Rak9378]

Gold Gouramis, Tiger Barbs, and Rainbow Sharks are all semi-aggressive fish. I'm not too familiar with swordtails but I believe they are pretty peaceful. Tigers can be especially aggressive and nip fins (particularly longer fins) when not kept in groups of at least 5 (bare minimum) but ideally 8. As Cory stated overcrowding can make the aggression of these fish worse. So the more info you can provide about your tank the better.

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

Gold Gouramis, Tiger Barbs, and Rainbow Sharks are all semi-aggressive fish.

Agreed. Even your pleco is a semi-aggressive fish. Keeping those fish individually oftens yields dire results.

How big is your tank?

Try putting a lot of hiding caves, tall plants and floating plants to break their line of sight, keep them well-fed and most especially, keep them in loose schools.