What's Happening? :(

[Brightestdai]

What's going on with my Phantom?

He's also swimming weird, swims fast then around in a circle then fast again.
He lives with 4 female opaline/3 dot, 2 platy and 5 croaking gourami. 20G all levels are on point, I do a 20% w/c once a week, I do a 50-75% once a month

 

[DreamertK]

  Looks like a lot of bullying by the other gourami. Females can be just as aggressive as males especially in a tank that small, and gourami in general hate each other.

 

[TekFish]

I think you will need to get a bigger tank, so he can get away from the females. Also the tank looks heavily planted from the picture, but it doesn't look like there are enough hiding spaces.
 
Tek oot.

 

[Brightestdai]

I found the problem, I bought an immature male thinking it was female, I brought him back to the store and they traded for a female

 

[Lunar Jetman]

I found the problem, I bought an immature male thinking it was female, I brought him back to the store and they traded for a female

Well not quite.. Your tank at 20 gallons can hold around 20 inches of adult fish which is pretty much your 4 opalines. So you're quite a bit over stocked which means you're only going to experience more problems.

 

[Brightestdai]

I've always had 5 gourami, nothing happend until I replaced my other gourami (old age) then my big male had the sores

The females I have don't go near him, they just stick together and the male hangs out with the platys

 

[DreamertK]

Maybe they hunt in the night when you're not looking. My gourami tend to be very aware of my presence.
 
But as they grow larger they'll need more space and become more frustrated that their existing space is getting smaller around them. 4 opalines could be 24" of fish.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Maybe they hunt in the night when you're not looking. My gourami tend to be very aware of my presence.
 
But as they grow larger they'll need more space and become more frustrated that their existing space is getting smaller around them. 4 opalines could be 24" of fish.

Exactly. Just because they've been ok until now doesn't mean that everything is fine. It could be that they're all getting bigger and more territorial. Yes removing the male stopped the problem now but the tank is ultimately too small for them in the long run.

 

[Brightestdai]

I guess I'll be getting a bigger tank, any idea how big it should be to comfortably fit all the fish I've got plus some extra?

 

[ArronP]

I guess I'll be getting a bigger tank, any idea how big it should be to comfortably fit all the fish I've got plus some extra?

 
The general rule I've always encountered is one inch of fish per gallon of water in your tank, though I like to follow '1 inch per 2 gallon' rule... 40 gallons = 20 inches of fish.  Obviously this doesn't work for calculating space for one large fish (you wouldn't but a 90 inch fish in a 180gallon tank).    It also has a lot to do with your filtration system from my understanding.  If you have a good, powerful filter you can probably keep a few more fish than with an average filter.    Just my opnion