Aggressive DG, need some advice

[Pleco]

Ok well i had 3 dwarf blue gouramis they fought and now i have 1. The 1 thats left i thought would be fine on his own but last night i noticed that its picking on my snail to the point where he wont put his feelers out much anymore. Also if i feed an algae wafer and said gourami is eating it, it will charge any other fish that get near the wafer. Now mind you ive seen my ranbow knock in to him to get some of the food, but overall i think the dwarf gourami is just being a tank bully. So i am at odds here, i cannot add another gourami as i know he would probably fin nip till it dies like the other 2. So my options are either give him to a friend that has a larger tank and buy another (maybe 2) dwarfs again in hopes that it will be less agresssive, return him to my LFS and get one more again in hopes that its less aggressive, or just leave him in the tank.. Im at odds on what to do, he doesnt nip any other fish, in fact the nipping at the snail shell was the first i ever saw agression from it to another species (other than the food incident that happened once or twice). This is in a 40 Gallon Tall tank.

Advice?

Thanks
-Pleco

 

[verucaproduce]

Personally I hate to see my fish fight. It causes me stress. LOL I would either give him to your friend or return him to the store.

Do you have your heart set on having a DG? What else do you have in the tank?

 

[Pleco]

Personally I hate to see my fish fight. It causes me stress. LOL I would either give him to your friend or return him to the store.

Do you have your heart set on having a DG? What else do you have in the tank?

It stresses me to all ends too.

current stock
1 GN Pleco
1 Mystery Snail
8 Beacon Tetras
8 Neon Tetras
1 Austrailian rainbow
1 DG

My daughter is more heart set on the blue dwarf than i am, if i replaced it with another or say two others i dont think she would notice as shes only seen pictures so far. I setup the tank as a suprise while they are on vacation with my wife. She loved the "blue fishy" and as she is 6 i am sure she is smart enough to remember the photos she saw over the interweb.

My problems started when i tried to add a 3rd DG to the tank after the 2 that were in there settled. I think that trigged the aggression in one of them, or the new one was the aggressor.

I spoke with my friend and he cant get the fish till the wek after next which is a bit late for me. I am leaving work here in a hour so i think i may trade him in to the LFS, get two more and hope that they dont fight each other and other tank mates..

I still get baffled when i see gouramis listed as community fish.. maybe i just got the bad seed.

-Pleco

 

[verucaproduce]

She loved the "blue fishy"

I see. You have a problem there.

I was going to ask if you had rearranged decor. Sometimes that can lessen aggression. But maybe just switching out the "blue fishy" would be your best bet. It is true that fish have distinct personalities so maybe a different fish will yield a different result.

A 40 gal tall will have less surface area, so maybe he feels a bit crowded with all of the other fish. Not saying that you are overstocked, but a lot of mid and upper dwellers. Are you well planted? If not maybe giving the fish some privacy (haha...that sounds funny) would help?

 

[rich311k]

I would give him to your friend and try another one. They are not all that aggressive. I would only get one. The ones in the stores are all males and they will fight for territory. A lone one introduced now after the tank is established should get along ok.

 

[Pleco]

I would give him to your friend and try another one. They are not all that aggressive. I would only get one. The ones in the stores are all males and they will fight for territory. A lone one introduced now after the tank is established should get along ok.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I think i will just get one, stocking a 40 tall is interesting since the surface area isnt as large as a 40 wide.

Thanks!

-Pleco

 

[JeffreyL]

dg

For what it is worth, I had a similar thing happen with a powder blue DG. I tried two, thinking I had male and female. Wrong!!!!!! Got some bad information on how to spot a female. The 'passive, female' grew a pair and was fighting with the more dominant one in 2 weeks. Gave the more aggressive one away and all was well till the formerly passive DG grew a small forehead bulge like a parrot cichlid and started killing neon tetras.

This was the same tank that had the homicidal angel. Any wonder I was beginning to think it had a curse?

Trying another DG all by himself will likely work. Most of the time they are good citizens!! Good luck!!!

 

[Pleco]

Ok well i took in the DG and traded it in for 2 dwarf neon blue rainbows...

they are blue, I dont feel like living with the stress of watching the DG be a tank bully to every fish in the tank.

On a lighter note the dwarf rainbows like to keep my austrailian rainbow company now. althought one of my larger adult beacon tetras started chasing them, the chasing has seemed to die out now. Seemed more like play than aggression though, i remember what aggresion looked like from the DG

Lets hope for a happy tank. Next un fish related question.. how do you explain to a 6 year old that the fish wasnt compatible with the other fish in the tank?

-Pleco

 

[JeffreyL]

fish

Um, the bigger blue fish was too old to play with the younger ones? He needed to go to another class with big fish?? Shot in the dark. I do not have kids. lol

 

[JeffreyL]

fish

duplicate again!!!!

 

[joannde]

Just tell her the truth - that some fish can't be kept together because they come from different environments and that every plant and animal on the good Earth needs to be respected for its own likes and dislikes.

 

[kmgriff72]

Just tell her that the blue fishy was beating up all of the other fishies and you had to take him back before he hurt all of the other fish and you got her 2 blue fishies instead. She will probably be more happy learning she got 2 fish for the price of 1.