Aggressive Dwarf Gourami?

If you already have a cat, and you get a new kitten, and the cats fight... Do you stuff the new kitten in the freezer?

That's an abominable way to deal with pets... Pet stores know that these type of things happen. That's why you can almost ALWAYS take fish back. Even if they won't, almost always you can find somebody that can provide the gourami with a good home... It's not as if it's a difficult fish to care for, or requires some great expense to keep.

These are creatures that are completely at your mercy. I've been in a similar situation- had a kribensis who bullied and killed several of my fish, and it was a very frustrating situation... I found a store who was willing to take my krib, and give him an appropriate home.

I implore anyone facing this kind of situation to make EVERY EFFORT to find a home for a bothersome or incompatible fish, not simply take out anger irresponsibly on a defenseless animal who is only doing what animals do.
 
cats are different than fish. If I had a few cats and somehow end up getting a tiger that picks my cats off one by one to kill them, what would you recomend? I didnt have anything to do with the dwarf gourami and I dont know anybody that would take him. Would you prefer I keep him in a small bowl for a few days until I can get back to the pet store to return him? Lets give him a slower death, good idea.
Point is he is gone, I went a different route with my tank since pretty much everything was killed by the gourami and all is good now.
Im not saying I wanted to kill it or anything, I felt pretty bad about doing it but I had to weigh my options at the time...Let it kill the rest of my fish, let it die a slow death in some small bowl that I had to quarantine him to, or just put it in the freezer which is the most popular 'humane' way to deal with it.
 
Gouramis are one of the hardiest fish out there. They're able to withstand a wide variety of conditions due to an evolutionary history in eastern asian swamps. Even a gallon jug with the top cut off would have held him over until you could get him back to the store. Feed him every other day to make sure he produces as little waste as possible, and pour out a little water and replace it every day or two, and he wouldn't have experienced any ill effect.

I'm not trying to be a pain, or to make you feel bad- everyone has mistakes like this, no matter how much research and planning they do. This board mostly is about learning from others mistakes so that we don't make them ourselves. I'm just trying to implore people not to be angry with fish for doing what comes naturally to them. I apologize if it seemed like a personal attack- that was not the intent at all...
 
TJT said:
cats are different than fish. If I had a few cats and somehow end up getting a tiger that picks my cats off one by one to kill them, what would you recomend? I didnt have anything to do with the dwarf gourami and I dont know anybody that would take him. Would you prefer I keep him in a small bowl for a few days until I can get back to the pet store to return him? Lets give him a slower death, good idea.
Point is he is gone, I went a different route with my tank since pretty much everything was killed by the gourami and all is good now.
Im not saying I wanted to kill it or anything, I felt pretty bad about doing it but I had to weigh my options at the time...Let it kill the rest of my fish, let it die a slow death in some small bowl that I had to quarantine him to, or just put it in the freezer which is the most popular 'humane' way to deal with it.
Click to expand...

But it wouldn't have died in the bowl. Gourami's are like bettas, they breath air, and need little aeration.
What I did with my Paradise fish (related to a Gourami), is I got one of those clear 2 foot long, 6 inch high storage bins, and bought a bubbler and put my gourami in that. It lives quite comfy.
 
wooo!!!

learning is fun!
 
Sorry I didnt mean to react like I did. Just not having the best luck with this whole fish keeping thing. My girlfriend and her mom (who got me started) even think I am getting carried away with this little 10g tank (But its all I have room for right now)
Ive already replaced the hood with a fluorescent, changed gravel, bought a bigger HOB filter, gotten into live plants, bought a 5g to keep a betta and ADFs, Bought a chunk of driftwood, test kits, the works and I hate to see the fish not flourishing!
To be honest, I went to my lfs last saturday and bought:
5 neon tetras
2 bronze cory cats (to go with my 1 surviving albino)
3 ghost shrimp (just to see what it would be like to watch them, quite fun :)
and got a few Malaysian Trumpet Snails thrown in there.

Also got a black mystery snail for my 5gallon.
Acclimated all the bags the same way, float, then add a bit of water every 5 minutes for 3-4 times.
Sunday: neon tetra dead, stuck to the filter intake.
Went to another pet store and bought 3 neon tetras, trying to compensate beforehand anticipating my bad luck to strike these fish.
Monday morning, 1 dead neon tetra, monday after work, 2 more dead
Tuesday 2 more.
Looking at 3 left now, all look good and they made it through the day. Catfish are doing good, and the otto's are the only other fish I have in there (2 of them) they are doing great.
What is the deal? I have been doing weekly 1-2 gallon water changes using my water (untreated, but its well water so I dont believe I have to..?)
The tank is cycled, and the nitrates were 20 ppm when I did my water change this week.
My ph is high, as in off the chart of my high range ph. The lady at the LFS said this was normal, living in florida. Should I use some peat moss to try and bring this down a bit?
Im not going to get any more tetras in a hurry, and make sure these 3 live a while but I do want to complete their school.
 
some fish are more sensitive to PH than others. you could simply buy some PH adjuster that will bring it right to 7.0 which is good for most tropical community fish. i think this is the best and most accurate way to handle it.

how long has the tank been set up? do you have your own test kits? are they old? sometimes they lose accuracy.
 
I thought the ph adjusting chemicals were very temporary, and not recomended. It has been set up probably 2 months now.
I just bought the test kit from big al's about a month ago, they are aquarium pharmacutical brand (with the drops, not strips)
 
i've had good luck with the pH adjusters. Once i got it there i didn't really need to keep adding it. i liked that it just balanced it to 7.0 for me.

Good job on the test kit. :)

your tank is very troubling. Has anyone tested for water hardness? i've heard but i don't know that well water can be very hard in a lot of areas. at anyrate, i'd also be cautious of the well water as it may have WAY too many trace minerals in it. is this an artesian well or just a standard pump? you should test the water coming straight from your well. you could also look into using bottled water for a while and see if things improve. i hear reverse osmosis water is good for this, but i'm not sure. there is just something wrong with your water when you have that many dead fishes. either you aren't done cycling or the water is essentially toxic.
 
No I dont think the water has been tested for hardness. Its a standard pump well, and our water is fairly hard. Our coffee pots/shower heads/faucets usually crap out in a couple years and need replacing because of the buildup.
How about standard jugs of 'purified water', about $1/gallon at the supermarket. Doing water changes could get awefully expensive and tedious to do at anything more than that :(
On a side note, 2 other neon tetras were dead when I got home....
Pet smart and my lfs both use strips to test, and I dont know if they have hardness strips?
 
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