Killer gourami

[jennysam]

Up until recently the only residents in my 30 gal tnk was a moonlight gourami and 6 tetra. This weekend I have added 2 dwarf honey Gourami, 2 honey gourami and 2 pearl gourami.
The problme that I now have is that the moonlight Gourami is attcking all the other fish and taking chunks out of them. I have tried moviung all the ornaments around in the tank to change territories this didn;t work he still attacked them.I asked the fish shop if they woud take him in exchange for something else or just take him and they said no.

I am quite desperate, he is currently living in a very small section of the tank that I have split from the rest. I am getting quite desperate as to what to do. Any suggestions would be very gratefully received

[computerman0219]

I had the same problem with a blue gourami, it would always attack my angelfish so I took it back, my advice would be to take the fish back and say "Take this fish back, or I will call the cops":wall::joke:...sorry as you can see I have know Idea, since they wont take the gourami back.:headshake2:

[jpappy789]

Putting that many gouramis in that small of a tank is trouble. I advise returning all but one species.

[jennysam]

I think that somewhere along the lines I have the size of my tank worng. It is 3 foot long1 foot wides and over a foot high. The gourami that I purchased at the weeked are less than an inch long. The pearls about an inch and a half, you can only just see them in the tank. Plus as i have already said I can not return the fish. There is plenty of space in there for all of them and the removal of all the new fish is not something I will consider.

[Lady G]

As mentioned already too many in the same tank, also from my personal experience the 2 dwarf will end up fighting I have heard of ppl having more than one but dwarfs are VERY aggressive toward each other. I had 2 at one time they seemed to do great together, swam around the tank together and everything, I thought ppl were crazy saying the were aggressive....until one day one just tore into the other, I ended up loosing one due to injury.

[jennysam]

thanks for that Lady G. You would think that people in the fish shop would have told me this. I have had two dwarfs before and they got on fine together. The new ones appear to have got their own territories in the tank already. The two dwarfs are in opposite ends of the tank they only mingle during feedng time. I think that I will just have to get a new tank to put all the naughty ones in.

[Rowangel]

Sadly gourami are very territorial and aggressive...with there own kind. While quite peaceful with other types of fish, they will fight each other and any other fish in the tank could become a casualty of war. You have 6 Gourami, 4 different types and they will all fight with each other. Even 2 in a 30g tank (or larger) can sometimes be a problem. Which is sad, because there are soo many lovely variety's, and who would want a tank full of them!?

However, in order not to loose your fish one-by-one to stress, as mentioned already, I would return all but 2 of them. If this isn't an option, you can always try donating them instead, selling them in your local paper or trying another LFS to see if they might take them. Unless you can get individual tanks for all of the Gourami you'll probably see continued issues. Chance are they will make it for awhile before they all eventually die due to stress or stress related secondary issues. Good luck.

[ThePBM]

Moonlight gouramis are one of the most peaceful of gouramis. i have 3 of them and they don't even bother a male betta.
being able to make the peaceful moonlight attack other fish is a clear sign that you're overstocked.

[kimmisc]

Trouble between gouramis can sneak up on you, even the ones you think get along fine now. They are usually very young when purchased, and as they mature they begin chasing eachother more and more. I had 3 sparkling gouramis together for months after buying them, then started noticing chunks missing out of all their fins. It quickly (within days) escalated to the point they were killing eachother.

A tank with that many gouramis is going to be trouble. Your only options are finding someone to take them, getting more tanks, or letting them kill eachother.

[jm1212]

it can take them a while to start up the aggression. they can live together for days, weeks, or even months without any problems and then snap one day and start an all out battle. it seems that once everything is settled and constant and they have fully adjusted and have staked out their territories they begin to scuffle.

[jennysam]

I have got a new but smaller tank for the moonlight. ThePBM I don't know how you manage to keep three of them. I started of with 2 but the one i have left hounded the other one to death, whilst the one that remains got bigger and bigger the other one just didn't grow and finally died. Currently they seem to be ok. I am quite annoyed because the LFS has always told me that I can put gourami with gourami and they will live quite peacefully. However I would like to state that my tank is no where near overstoked. When i first got the moonligths they were in a 30g tank with only 6 neons for company, there is no way that any one could call this overstoked. I think that I possibly just have a very agressive fish.