Help With Fish

[Lisa73]

We recently aquired a beutiful large and very peaceful kissing gourami after taking time to have a long chat with the garden center selling her.
We have a large tank 40 Gallons and only have in it 2 Paradise fish, 2 Rainbow Sharks, 2 Black Widows and a pleck. I was a little concerned as she was a larger fish that this may prove a problem in the community they assured me they were all good community fish so they should be fine.

Sadly they are not we have only had her since Sunday but ive noticed today that our male Paradise Fish who was until her arrival the biggest fish in the tank is taking exception becoming territorial and nipping at her fins.

I suppose that im right in assuming that this wont get better and only worse resulting in other fish joining in? I am loathed to get rid of my Paradise fish as ive had him two years and he is very well established so would I be best rehoming the big gourami asap? I dont want to return her to the fish shop particularly but dont want her travelling to far either because of causing her further distress. If I post looking for a new home would say 20 mile radius of Stoke on Trent be best?

 

[SkiFletch]

You're right, fin nipping unfortunately usually only gets worse, not better. Good luck trying to re-home the Gourami

 

[Lisa73]

Thank you Feel awful though as such a beautiful placid fish as I said before.

Will post on the buy sell or swap board to see if anyone has a placid enough community who they think will accept her other than that will have to take her to the local fish shop. Would much rather see her getting a good home straight off though.

 

[Flashfire]

Hope you find a home, I have always heard that you should only keep anabantoids in species tanks. A friend of mine learnt this when he tried to keep paradise fish with bettas.

 

[kat and james]

we had BIG problems with paradise fish, they aren't really suitable for community tanks, in fact in our research more often than not, we found the same statement echoed. we were told that our paradise fish (we had a male and female.. which they shouldn't have sold us anyways should have been 2:1 females:males) would be "ideal for a community tank" of course we told the guy the contents of our tank.. including angels and he yabbered on.. yup they'll be fine.. we all know how it goes!

anyway the paradise fish chomped it's way through 5 angels before we realised what it was that was eating the angels..!! he was doing it at night, so we had no idea!

if i were you i'd get rid of the paradise fish.. but i've got an ongoing vendetta against them!!

 

[Lisa73]

Thanks everyone, Im really suprised about the Paradise Fish comments we have obviously been very lucky with ours up until now. Weve had them since we had the tank they were the first fish we added nearly two years ago and anything they have ever been with before they have been fine with infact they have been the most peaceful of the lot its been the rainbow sharks weve watched before.

Had a friend come look at her last night who has fish and he said there is only one small nip missing out of her fin, and as I witnessed that one it *may* have been a one off so dont panic about moving her asap. Im still going to try and find the right home for her as someone else has now told me that a four inch fish needs at least an 80 tank not a 40 if sharing with other fish which has confused me as the size of the other fish she has the best part of the tank. Im going to add a few more plants tonight aswell to give them all a bit more space whilst we try and sort her out.

Again thanks for the advice

 

[kat and james]

i think the reason that you are having problems is because the paradise fish and the kissing gourami, are both gouramis, and therefore are vieing for the same area of the tank! i would keep a really close eye on them!!
but hopefully your troubles will end here!!
hope it all works out for you!

 

[Lisa73]

Thanks fingers crossed, ive been watching them today and there hasnt been anymore problems that ive seen in fact they have around each other quite alot without the paradise fish looking remotly stressed he has quite happily swam past her whilst she sort of just floats around. Im going to add the plants tonight and also put some melafix into the water whilst we carry on to watch the situation for a couple more days.

Am worried also it may have been myself that caused the problem because when I put her in we were told to feed the other fish then switch the lights off which weve always done and then not feed for a day or so.

 

[kat and james]

that one bit of bullying must have been the paradise fish just putting the gourami in it's place!!

 

[@ombomb]

You need to remove one of the sharks to avoid them getting very aggressive towards each other and add some more Tetra as they can get nippy when they're not in a large enough groups.