territorial gourami (aka, psycho fish)

[hbeth82]

I'd started out with two flames, one died a while back and since the remaining gourami has stopped eating. Yesterday I purchased another flame dwarf gourami to (hopefully) befriend my remaining flame. Instead, the new guy is constantly being chased by my older fish and the older fish still refuses to eat! This new little one has taken some abuse and part of his tail has be nibbled off, so he was already at a disadvantage but now life's gotten a bit worse. I never had this behavior with the first two fish but I'm wondering if that's because they were added to the tank together so neither felt quite as territorial.

If that is the case, can I take the older, meaner, refusing-to-eat fish out of the tank for a few days then reintroduce him?

 

[spoonman]

Maybe try some re-arranging of the decor in the tank? sometimes that workd with my cichlids since they are very territorial.

 

[Mystery]

As the new one is smaller you should be able to arrange a safe hiding area for him?

 

[hbeth82]

I wish I knew of a good way to set up hiding spots but since these are fish that tend to stay near the surface (makes sense, that's where they breathe), I don't know of a good way to create a floating refuge, short of cramming a lot of plants in there. With such a small tank, I don't know of many arrangements that would be high enough to have much of an effect and yet not be too big. I have a small clay pot and a little hiding spot under some driftwood that's propped up by some rocks, but those are only really good for my otos.

I'm starting up a little 10gal tank to put the older, meaner fish in for a few days and maybe during this time I'll be able to work out a better tank arrangement, the new fish can mend a bit, and the mean one will chill out.

And because I have these plans, everything will work out perfectly