Opaline Gourami Bully

[idlefingers]

I had bought two opalines a few weeks back, quickly found that one was bullying the other and took the victim back. Now the bully has taken to picking on my corys. Little bugger!

So now I have a bigger tank, I'm faced with two options; take him back or get 3 (or more?) other opalines to go with him to try to spread the aggression. I really like him (other than the bullying) and don't really want to take him back.

Buying three more seems much more attractive, but I read that they need to be the same size. In one shop nearby, they're about 3cm smaller and at another, they're about 2cm bigger.

So, is that kind of difference in size too much and if not, would it be better to go for the bigger ones or smaller ones and how many should I get? I have a (very) overfiltered 200L with 1 gourami, 15 neons, 8 corys, one bristlenose and one king tiger plec.

Thanks for any help.

 

[sylvia]

Since it's a male, you should return him. You can't keep a group of males together and keeping a mixed group isn't really a good option either as they'll almost certainly breed eventualy and that'll lead to even more aggression. If he's like this now (which is rather unusual actually), imagine that he'll be a million times worse later when spawning.

If it was a female, you could go for the 3 smaller females. This established and larger one would become the dominant fish, probably, almost instantly but there would be three to spread the aggression. If you did the inverse, there would only be this smaller one for all the larger fish to pick on.

A better option, seeing as it's a male, may simply be to provide the cories with more places to hide, plant the tank more heavily and add some more boisterous, perhaps larger, schooling fish for the mid-water level that'll help hold the three-spot's attention. Active but non-nippy barbs would work - rosy barbs, checker barbs, spanner barbs, ember barbs, black ruby barbs, golden barbs or ticto barbs would work in a generous shoal (6 or more), for example. Blue neon/dwarf rainbowfish are also great - or some of the larger (eg boesmani or Melanotaenia lacustris) rainbows would also work but you may end up overstocked as they also need to be in a shoal.

If you can do so, try to get the current from your filter to be strongest near the gravel/sand and weakest near the water's surface. Also, what temperature is your tank at? The lower it is, (usually) the less aggressive gouramies will be.

 

[idlefingers]

thanks sylvia I think I might just take him back. I had posted a pic here a few weeks ago and it was agreed it was a female, but after spending more time watching it, it growing more and me looking at more pics of what males and females look like, I'm now pretty convinced it's male.

The corys have loads of hidey holes which they do use, but the gourami picks on them when they're out grazing. My tank's temperature is around 25-26 at the min (my new heater's playing funny-bugger and showing the wrong temp, but I'm trying to slowly getting it down to about 25).