Was This Advice Correct Or Not?

[Littlemonkey]

I went to my local Maidenhead Aquatics on Sat for plants and three more otto's to go with my exsisting three. The guy asked what fish I already had. I told him two moonlight gourami and a opaline gourami. I didn't get a chance to tell him any more as he said that he shouldn't be selling these to me as they will fit into a Gourami's mouth and that I shouln't be buying these fish as they may end up as food for the other fish. I did try to explain that the three exsisting ottos and Gourami's had co-exsisted together for well over a year without any mishap, infact the Gourami's show no interest in them at all, when I got home and looked at the mouths of my Gourami's, it didn't seem if their mouths would be big enough to swallow one whole. Was this guy correct in what he said to me, I would never buy a fish just to be food for another. He was comming out with lots off other stuff without really asking me about my set up. The real plus side is that all three ottos are extremely healthy and settled in well.

 

[Monty2451]

Personally I would say he was way off. While the Opaline Gouramies tend to be aggressive, they, like all gouramies, tend to stick to the surface as they prefer to breath O2 from the surface. The shouldn't grow much bigger than 4 inches, and have relatively small mouths, much to small to swallow a full grown Otto at 2 inches. Not to mention that because Ottos are so drab and low profile, I doubt the gouramies would bother with them.

 

[hamfist]

Agreed. Unless they are tiny, young Oto's then they should be just fine with 4-5" Gourami.

 

[Littlemonkey]

Thanks guy's, I did wonder. I'm all for people being helpfull, but he was really pushing the issue and giving out wrong information aswell. Makes you wonder what else he has been telling other people, I do plan to go back there at some stage, I may just have to have a quiet word.

 

[Assaye]

Seems like he's got a "never keep small fish with big ones" mindset.

I shouldn't imagine it would be a problem, though.

I must admit, kudos to that shop assistant. He may not have known what he was talking about but he was putting the animals' welfare first and had the balls to refuse a sale he wasn't happy with. A little bit of decent training could make him into a fine aquarist.

 

[Littlemonkey]

Seems like he's got a "never keep small fish with big ones" mindset.

I shouldn't imagine it would be a problem, though.

I must admit, kudos to that shop assistant. He may not have known what he was talking about but he was putting the animals' welfare first and had the balls to refuse a sale he wasn't happy with. A little bit of decent training could make him into a fine aquarist.

I agree with the more training bit, it was the fact that he wasn't willing to take on board what I was trying to tell him regarding my set up in the first place. Maybe he had middle aged woman dosn't know what's she's doing syndrome