New Dwarf Gourami Being Bullied By Gourami

[MartinD]

Hi,

I bought new fish today, and among them were 2 dwarf gouramis (1 male, 1 female). I took my time over adding them to the tank, etc.

I left the house for about 2 hours and I've come back to find that the new male dwarf gourami has been attacked.
I found him laying down beside one of the rocks, pretty lifeless and I was able to touch him - he didn't actively dart away.
His tail has been badly nipped and one side of him looks as though the blue scales have vanished. I can only presume
this is down the exising Gourami. Before we left the house, all was well with the fish - no fighting or problems.

Rewind to 9-10 months ago.

I had two adult gourami's and had to give one of them away. 2 males. One gourami was constantly attacking the blue
one and after 2-3 weeks of this, I gave the attackinggourami away to a local fish shop and kept the otherone - the one I have now.

So, is there anything I can do to stop the existing male gourami fighting the new male dwarf gourami? I'm sure it's the gourami that's done
this although I haven't seen him at it - when I came home I immediately separated them - I put the dwarf gourami in a bag and it's sitting
in the tank out of harms away from the other fish.

Any ideas, suggestions would be great.

I must add, about 2 months ago, my entire stock was killed (bar the Gourami and a swordtail) due to poisoning - the LFS had given
me the wrong medication. So I'm still a bit bitter about it - I don't want to lose more fish

 

[charlie4486]

unfortunately usually as long as you have two males together they are going to fight. It might stop after a while but it usually doesn't. i would suggest getting two females and one male. it seems to work out better that way. hope this helps.

 

[MartinD]

Thanks for your reply.

I think the male dwarf gourami has had a really bad time of it.. he's pretty lifeless but does move when he has to..
I've since separated him from the rest of the tank with a partition in the water that has holes (the smaller fish can get through)
and the guppies are nipping him a bit - he does move away from them though.

Can I presume that he's just has a very stressful time with the big gourami while we were out and he'll bounce back?

I'll take on board what you've said and I'll see if the fish shop will take him back and give me another female in exchange.

so sad - he's such a gorgeous looking fish, too.

 

[MartinD]

bit of an update..

he does seem to swim around when he's persuaded to do so by the female dwarf gourami.
Unless she pushes him, he just sits at the bottom and 'rests' or leans against the temporary partition i put up.

Here's some pics - not best quality, sorry.
You'll see the 'red/brown' patch on his side.. this was there after we came back.. and wasn't there before we left:

Also, I don't know if this means anything.. but his eyes aren't moving a lot either - he seems to bump into things
when he does move.

 

[Sofia]

Just an update The male dwarf gourami died overnight

I'm concerned about the female dwarf Gourami, she is being harrassed by the larger male Blue Gourami, he keeps chasing her around the tank. Is the blue Gourami attempting to kill her too? If we get another female Gourami like charlie has suggested will is just spread the abuse between the two females? Would we be better off just giving away the larger blue gourami?

 

[RadaR]

Woah that looks bad! Internal bleeding. poor guy
If it was me, then I would give away the bully.

 

[Honey Gourami]

Hi just wondering how things are going I've got a gold gourami thats had a whole heap of troubles since I got her 1 month ago in fact shes just back in the main tank after being in the hosp. tank for the last couple of weeks.

Anyway apart from being unsure whether her feeler would grow back after a fungus made it drop off I think I did okay just by following tips on this forum.

One thing I did do was keep her in shallow water so she didn't have to use energy just to breath the air.
Salt and Teatree in the water and kept the tank light free and warm and fed her every second day.
Changed the water everyday too adding fresh TTO and salt.

It's heart breaking watching them suffering I know even though shes back in the big tank I still feel shes not 100%

But you do what you can - as for the bully more females or give him away or less feeding apparently Gouramis will be less aggressive if they are to busy looking for food.

 

[Biulu]

First of all: gouramis are territorial. Your 'lone' gourami that turned into a bully, was for a while the king of the tank. If you do not move the decor around before adding other gouramis, you ask for trouble as the king will defend his territory.

Another question is how big is your tank? Is it heavily planted with sufficient hiding spots? Normally we reckon that you need around 10 gallons/gourami, although for dwarfs 20 gallons for a trio (1 male, 2 females) would be sufficient.

HOpefully this will help to avoid more tragedies in the future!

 

[Sofia]

Hi,

Thanks for your input. We decided to give the large blue gourami to the LFS even though he is a character and we did love him he was bullying all the other fish and we just want a nice peaceful community tank.

It's funny, because it's like the blue gourami knew that he had been bad by practically murdering the dwarf male, he hid in the corner everytime we came up to the tank!

We decided to get another male dwarf gourami and another female and they are all doing great!!! Our guppies even gave birth a few days ago and it looks like our swordtail is about ready to pop too!!! Things have really settled since we gave away the blue gourami all the remaining fish use the whole tank and swim around with eachother instead of running away from the blue gourami!!! fyi we have a 24 gallon (us) tank. so the dwarf gourami's should do just fine. I'm all happy!!!

 

[Honey Gourami]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

I hadn't read that he had gone already before I posted, in too much of a hurry to offer advice.

Shame you had to give the other guy away too.

Hope things are still going well.

Regards

Maggie

 

[Sofia]

They are going well, thanks, the male gourami has made a bubble nest, he's not doing well attracting the females though he keeps chasing them away when they go anyway near him. Gonna read up on their mating procedures in the forum.