Gouramis With Community Fish?

ZonkSJx · Jul 6, 2006

Hello there

I was wondering if someone could help out. I recently set up a tank about 4 weeks ago. Being the newbie that i am :unsure:

. i think i mightve put them in a little too soon. It was about 24-48 Hours that i put them in.

Anyway. I had two platys that died like one or two weeks after the tank setup. I also had a tiger barb that died around the same time. I thought to myself that, this couldve been the problem.

Well another 2 weeks pass by, and one day, one of my mollies die. I was thinking, this is weird, than just today my last molly died. Now im frustrated enough to register into a fish forum, wondering if i should ever buy any more fish again

The only fish i have left are two dwarf gouramies.. [blue & gold] a tiger barb, and a placaustomous . The gold one seems to be quite aggresive with the blue gourami, but Ive never seen it pick on any of the other fish. I was wondering, could it maybe of been the gold gourami that attacked them ? I mean they were swimming well these past weeks, even yesterday one looked healthy, but i come home from work and find it laying on the gravel dead. Are they compatible with community fish?

I was researching some possible reasons and a couple caught to my attention. Maybe the temperature is too high? My room is pretty small, so with tv, computer etc.. on, it gets pretty warm in here. i usually turn off the heater in the tank. Another thing that caught to my attention, was that the fish wasnt getting enough oxygen. if thats the case, how do i fix this?

Sorry for the long post. I may just end up buying gold fish

BTW.. the fish tank is 10 gallons

fish_fetish65 · Jul 6, 2006

10 gallons is far too small for those fish. the tiger barbs and gouramis need closer to a 30 gallon tank to live happily, plus tiger barbs like to be in groups of 5 (shoals).

have you been regularly testing your water? it could have been that the chemical buildup in the tank killed them... as well as new tank syndrome, since you waited such a short time before putting fish in. i would definitely test the water. how often have you been changing it? you need to do a 20% water change once a week to keep ammonia and other harmful chemical levels down.

ZonkSJx · Jul 6, 2006

Ahh i See, so every week remove 20 % . I often check for pH levels, but i never do a check on chloride or nitrites.

I also asume that changing 20 % also keeps the tank clean withought having to empty it completley [id hate to do that, & i dont think ur even supposed to]

z0nk

ZonkSJx said:
Ahh i See, so every week remove 20 % . I often check for pH levels, but i never do a check on chloride or nitrites.

I also asume that changing 20 % also keeps the tank clean withought having to empty it completley [id hate to do that, & i dont think ur even supposed to]

z0nk

My current fish seem to be in excellent condition

ZonkSJx · Jul 6, 2006

Well. I just tested the pH level. Its about 6.0 I know it should be around 7.0 . Should i do a 20 % water change ?

fish_fetish65 · Jul 6, 2006

also, blue and gold gouramis are not dwarf. they grow to be quite large. i saw some the other day that were close to 6 inches...

they will not stay in your tank for long. very soon, they will become extremely aggressive, and will probably fight one another to the death, killing any other fish you have in the tank.

as far as tests go, you need to test for nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, and ph... other good tests to run are for alkalinity and hardness.

and no, you should never empty the tank completely.

carrera · Jul 6, 2006

your problem is that the tank and filter is not cycled.

fish produce waste, which is converted into ammonia surprisingly quickly. ammonia is highly toxic even in very small ammounts.

luckily, a type of bacteria grows in your filter media which instantly converts any ammonia in slightly less toxic nitrite, however, it is only slightly less toxic.

luckily again, there is a slower growing bacteria that will covert nitrite into nitrate which is reletivley harmless in amounts less than 50ppm. nitrates pose the need for weekly 20% water changes to keep the count down. this is the nitrogen cycle.

unfortunatley, the beneficial bacteria that coverts ammonia and nitrite take a long time to grow and you have to "cycle" your tank before it can support fish. you can do this either with a few hardy fish, or you may choose to complete a fishless cycle with a bottle of ammonia. if you search for cycling in this forum, you will find what you need.

good luck

fish_fetish65 · Jul 6, 2006

and what fish store sold you these fish? they should have known better than to give you semi-aggressive fish (tiger barbs, gouramis) AND community fish (mollies, platties)... ESPECIALLY if they knew that you were going to be putting them in a 10G!!! that's just ridiculous... there's no excuse for that kind of stupidity.

dumb lfs.

anyhow, carrera is correct. your tank needs to cycle. my suggestion would be to return these fish before it is too late, as they will probably die as a result of new tank syndrome and an incomplete cycle. then, you can cycle your tank and add some SMALL, NON-aggressive fish to your ten gallon.