Siamese Fighting Fish Is Attacking My Dwarf Gourami

[nataliemc]

Hi everyone!

First of all, thanks for all of your advice on moving my fish to a bigger aquarium... it was acutally quite easy and I've had encountered no problems at all.

I bought a couple of new fish at the weekend... a male blue dwarf gourami and a betta splendens (siamese fighting fish).

Everything was going great until I got home last night and noticed that the betta was flaring his fins and gills and couldn't figure out what was going on until i got a bit closer and i saw that he was squaring up to my dwarf gourami and nipping at him (they're about similar in size). You can see a few scales missing on the dwarf gourami where he has obviously been nipped.

Sometimes the dwarf gourami does try to have a go back but doesn't seem very successful and he then swim off to hide and the betta gives chase but then gives up, swims elsewhere but when he spots him again later he starts flaring and going for him again.

I put some food in this morning and the gourami come out to eat, and even when the betta was flaring he carried on eating so he don't think he's too stressed yet.

My first option would be take the betta back to the shop i bought him from but this shop closes at 5:30pm and i do not finish work until 6pm.

There is a shop near me that is open til 8pm so my question is.... if i was to buy another blue male dwarf gourami so that there was two of them... would the betta then back off as it would be two against one

Any ideas

Thanks!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Nope. Hence why it's never reccomended for bettas to have any tankmates whatsoever. You can keep him in a seperate tank, or take him back, but they're the only options. Oh, and afaik, two male dwarfs will fight too.

 

[nataliemc]

I'm very diappointed, the guy in the shop told me that the betta would be fine and that they are very peaceful!!!!

 

[BWBettas]

The LFS Owner Is Only Out To Make Money, They Don't Care

Bret

 

[Ogrt48]

I'm very diappointed, the guy in the shop told me that the betta would be fine and that they are very peaceful!!!!

Let me guess, after he told you that you handed him a wad of cash.

 

[LvBettas]

They are called Siamese FIGHTING Fish for a reason. Both bettas and gouramis are very territorial and should never be kept together and two male gouramis will fight as well. Each male needs his own territory. With your gourami and betta, those territories should be seperate tanks. There are some pet stores that are quite good, but most will sell you whatever you will buy to make their sales for the day. That's why it is important to research any new fish you plan on putting in your tank, before you buy it.

 

[nataliemc]

Thanks for all your replies. Well I went to my LFS that was open til 8pm and told them about the problem with my betta and gourami and asked if he would be willing to take the betta off my hands and he agreed. I told him I didn't want any money for it (as I didn't buy it from their shop) but he very nicely wrote me out a note so that I could get a free fish whenever I wanted!

So my dwarf gourami is now safe!

I am still a bit worried about him though as he does have quite a few nip marks on his body. I added some stress coat, I'm hoping this was the right thing to do.

Does anybody now if the marks will disappear over time, can scales grow back??


Many thanks.

Natalie

 

[Squid]

I'm very diappointed, the guy in the shop told me that the betta would be fine and that they are very peaceful!!!!

thats LFS for you.. something called "fighting fish" being called peaceful...

 

[LvBettas]

It may take a while, but usually if there is no infection that sets in, they are fine in a few months.