HELP swordtail picking on Gourami

[cheesy318]

Our male and female pineapple swordtails keep picking on our new gouramis.

The swordtails used to be in a 45 gallon with three angels 2rams and two thicklip gourami

We acclimated them to our smaller tank the same time we added our beautiful powdered blue gouramis

I removed the male swordtail, but the female keeps picking on them as well. We also have a tuxedo swordtail. She wants nothing to do with the gouramis.

Not sure what else to try. 're acclimating them to the tank?

Any ideas?

 

[bud29]

Rearranging the tank's decor may help. Some people do this in cichlid tanks to try to distract the existing stock from new additions.

 

[cheesy318]

They were added at the same time

 

[bud29]

It still may be worth a shot to rearrange, as it would still distract the swordtails. Adding more decor as well may give the gouramis more hiding places to escape from the bullies.

 

[cheesy318]

UPDATE. We removed the swordtails and the Gouramis have come out to pley!

 

[cheesy318]

Play*****

 

[bettaowner]

I've seen this happen with platies attacking dwarf gouramis. I could never understand why

 

[cheesy318]

Yeah they were fine in the big tank with the thicklip gouramis. But when we moved them to the smaller tank with the powdered blues, they kept picking on them. We acclimated and added them at the same time

 

[cheesy318]

We took the sword tails back to the LFS and they were bewildered