Fish being picked on badly

[quitters]

Hey all, tank details:

29 gallon planted
plenty of places to hide
12 gold tetras
2 male neon dwarf gouramis
water quality all fine, (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phos, gh, kh, ph, ect)

the problem is that one gourami is picking on the other, at first the other one was fighting back so i thought they would be ok but i came to the tank today, the bully is roaming free and the victim is loosing colour and sitting in the corner and startingto swim funny!

i know i have to do something about this, i am hell-bent on having 2 neon dwarf gouramis, and i hear males should be fine together its the male0female combo i thought i needed to watch out for, so i think ive just been unlucky. so my question is

do i return the bully or the victim?

i want to return the bully, but i dunno, what do u guys think, i have a quarantine tank that i can instantly cycle also, do you guys think if i isolate the bully for a week or two, and let the other one get more comfortable being in the tank, this might sort their issues out?

there should be a councillor fish that u can buy that sits them down and gets to the root of their problem. i guess the main issue is finding a writing pad thats small enough and waterproof :S

thanks for any help ppl

 

[rich311k]

Male dwarfs will establish a territory. In a small tank it can be the whole tank. I would take one of them back. Which one is up to you. If you really want two try and find a female or two. I dont know if seperating and putting back together will work or not, but if you have the space you can try it.

 

[mollielover]

I agree, they are very territorial, now here is your chance to upgrade to a big tank! (if you really want to keep 2).

 

[Menagerie]

i am hell-bent on having 2 neon dwarf gouramis, and i hear males should be fine together

There's a problem in that statement if you don't upgrade your tank or keep two tanks. Gouramis are not known for being friendly towards each other, so you need to do some research in order to make this work. As far as returning one or the other, the "victim" could become the bully if the next gourami introduced is not aggressive first. The bully has already established himself and will not likely tolerate any other male gourami. Keep in mind gouramis are related to the bettas and they share some of the same traits, aggression and territoriality are among them.

 

[quitters]

thanks for your replies

the problem is fixed, but in a very sad way.

i put the aggresive one in my qt tank, water all good, but i put the filter too close to the wall and somehow he got stuck in between it and the wall and i got home today and he was dead! poor thing i feel really bad.

i will research more next time and i wont get another one untill i get a larger tank. stupid bloody fish shop i should have known better than to listen to them they are so bad they have mucked me around before.

well the others are happy fish at the moment ill keep them that way

thanks for the help ppl

 

[Menagerie]

Sorry to hear of the bully's sad ending. As for being messed with by the LFS' employees, welcome to the club. My husband and I bought many a "docile" cichlid with horrid results on the advice of an employee.