Mean dwarf gouramis

[donk18]

i have 3 of them in my 29 gal community tank and just recently the largest on has became very very mean. to the point where the smallest has 3 large bite marks on each side. is this normal. i have removed the injured one and put him in my 10 gal guppie tank to heal up. also i have had a rash of zebra fish deaths and they look like they have had there eyes eaten and other areas eated. could the mean gourami be causeing all this trouble? also he any my dalmation mollie fight all the time. he is suppppppeeeeerrrrr mean.

 

[Lupin]

My opinion is that your dwarf gourami is the cause of those deaths. Why else were the danios' eyes removed? Unless you have sharp decorations, then you've seen the aggressive side of the gourami. Remove that culprit and treat any more injured fish by doing plenty of water changes.

 

[Octavarium]

I have 2 males in my 55, and they nip and chase each other during feeding time. Males tend to bother other males. As far as the deaths of others it could be him, but he must be super aggressive, fish display very different personalities for the same species, so depsite what you read in books as DGs beign "community" and "peaceful" that may not always be the case 100%

 

[Hooked Newbie]

Gourami (especially dwarves) are hit and miss. Usually the LFS sells only males because they are "prettier". If you have 3 males in a 29, it will be a fight to the death and they'll take everything else out along the way. I kept 2 males in a 20, but it was heavily planted with many breaks in line of sight, You may want to return one or 2 (Gourami are best in 1M/2+ F ratios) and/or rearrange your tank to minimize the aggresion.