Gourami Attacking Other Fish.

[Cammy]

Hi guys,

In preparation of my first 4ft aquarium I got my hands on an already established 2ft aquarium. The plan was to build up the 4ft till it was nicely established and then transfer everything that came with the 2ft into it.

The fish that came with the 2ft are:
1 x Red tailed/finned shark,
1 x Indonesian Loach,
1 x Siamese Fighter,
1 x Blue three spot Gourami,
5 x Danios

During transport the fish were only out of the tank for a short time. They were all reintroduced last night and everything seemed fine.

However, today when I turned their light on and got ready to feed them I noticed the Gourami chasing away the Loach, not overly aggressive though. Shortly after it is now harassing the Danios (all of them). Also, before feeding I could easy see 4 Danios. I'm guessing, from what Ive just witnessed, perhaps the Gourami got it?

The Gourami isn't affected by the Shark or Fighter and vice versa, only the Loach and Danios.

It seems to have calmed down slightly now but the Loach will swim away whenever the Gourami gets close.

I've done a lot of reading through the forum but the search engine isn't quite throwing back exact results (need to practice with it a bit more).

Any insight would be appreciated,

Thanks,

Cam

Edit:

Just found this:

The thing with gouramis is they are territorial, particularly the males, so any aggression is primarily going to be directed at any fish that they might mistake for another male gourami about to invade their territory.

Does the Gourami think the Loach/Danios are other Goruamis?

PS: Just spotted the shark with something in its mouth - looks like the remains of the missing Danio!

 

[pippoodle]

to have those fish in a small tank you need it to be very well planted as there will be aggression issues due to territorial disputes
how long had they all been in the tank together? before you got them

The fishes you have in there are not compatible - behaviour wise

 

[Cammy]

Hi,

Thanks for the fast reply. Stupidly enough, I didn't ask how long those fish had been in there but he did mention the tank has been running for 2 years. I guess I made a newbie mistake of assuming the aquarium he had up and running would therefore be problem free - behaviour wise at least.

I can only assume that all the fish supplied were all housed in this aquarium before I got it but I don't know for how long.

It currently has a large piece of bogwood with plants, a much smaller piece of bogwood and a rock ornament.

What are the (lack of) compatibility issues? So far all I can see is aggression from the Gourami. Is it purely because the tank is too small without adequate territory zones?

Thanks again,

Cam

 

[Pshaw]

I'm by no means an expert as I have 2 gourami's right now and 1 is still aggressive towards the other. However I've heard that they're less aggressive in larger numbers. I'm inclined to believe it if only because I never see them going at it in an over crowded petshop tank. So if you have room in your tank for more fish you might want to ask around about this.

 

[star4]

I had trouble with my male pear gourami chasing the other fish and the female, I got two blue gourami's and the male pearl has calmed down, its the female doing the chasing but only of the male pearl. i have also been told gourami's are better off in larger groups.

 

[mixmaster jay]

I had trouble with my male pear gourami chasing the other fish and the female, I got two blue gourami's and the male pearl has calmed down, its the female doing the chasing but only of the male pearl. i have also been told gourami's are better off in larger groups.

gourami's can be very terrotorial my 2 opalines were when they were in my old eheim 3 $ half foot tank but since they have been in my 825 litre tank no probs what so ever infact they never seperate now

 

[matchstickman47]

you have a siamese fighter with all those fish?