Clbrtwewill
Fish Fanatic
I have a 4" male opaline gourami that has become very dominant and possessive of food. I feed algae wafer to bottom feeders (catfish, loaches, etc) and he ends up bullying them/knocking the wafer around and away from them and eventually eats the entire thing. I can momentarily distract with flake food at the top.
I did some reading and had determined it should be okay to put a GBR with a gourami and added one last night in my 30 gallon tank. Things were great initially then the gourami began "touching/feeling" the ram with his longer fins/feelers (lol sorry, I am just realizing I don't know what they're called so if someone knows and can help me sound more intelligent let me know). He then decided to chase/nip/attack the GBR.
I added all of my decorations/rocks/castle overnight to try to provide cover for the ram including some I thought gourami wouldn't fit inside - guess I was wrong. I came home from work today to find my ram alive but lying sideways on the bottom, I've moved him into the bucket I use for adding water since I don't have a hospital tank because I think he's been attacked and extremely stressed out. I doubt the fish is going to live as it is presently upside down but still breathing.. kind of just playing the waiting game now unfortunately...
I would really like to have a GBR in my tank. I'm both disappointed and wondering at the price I paid for a healthy GBR where I live (without a guarantee) if it's worth having the gourami anymore. I'm getting frustrated with his dominance when it comes to eating time, he's grown more than twice his size since I added him in a month and a half ago. I had one in college that didn't act this way.
Oh, and he's chasing my other fish now too and he wasn't doing that pre-GBR unless there was food in the tank.
Time for him to go? I'd gladly rehome him, pretty but I'd like something a little more well-mannered in my tank... Any thoughts or ideas what I might be able to do about this?
I did some reading and had determined it should be okay to put a GBR with a gourami and added one last night in my 30 gallon tank. Things were great initially then the gourami began "touching/feeling" the ram with his longer fins/feelers (lol sorry, I am just realizing I don't know what they're called so if someone knows and can help me sound more intelligent let me know). He then decided to chase/nip/attack the GBR.
I added all of my decorations/rocks/castle overnight to try to provide cover for the ram including some I thought gourami wouldn't fit inside - guess I was wrong. I came home from work today to find my ram alive but lying sideways on the bottom, I've moved him into the bucket I use for adding water since I don't have a hospital tank because I think he's been attacked and extremely stressed out. I doubt the fish is going to live as it is presently upside down but still breathing.. kind of just playing the waiting game now unfortunately...
I would really like to have a GBR in my tank. I'm both disappointed and wondering at the price I paid for a healthy GBR where I live (without a guarantee) if it's worth having the gourami anymore. I'm getting frustrated with his dominance when it comes to eating time, he's grown more than twice his size since I added him in a month and a half ago. I had one in college that didn't act this way.
Oh, and he's chasing my other fish now too and he wasn't doing that pre-GBR unless there was food in the tank.
Time for him to go? I'd gladly rehome him, pretty but I'd like something a little more well-mannered in my tank... Any thoughts or ideas what I might be able to do about this?
