W
WiNGSPANTT
Guest
Hi everyone
I am pretty discouraged about my 30 gallon tank.
I used to have just 1 blue 3 spot gourami, about 4.5", and one african spotted leaf fish, which I know is not really called that, but anyway it was about 2". I also had one mystery snail, pretty big. These 3 got together very well, but basically any other gourami I added got beaten up/killed by the one in there, and any other leaf fish was also harassed by the current leaf fish.
So for a couple months it was jsut that trio, pretty small for a 30 gallon. People always asked me why so sparse a tank. I would say that anything else got killed, so it wasn't worth it. The tank has lots of hiding spots: plants, pots, driftwood, small gravel caves, large rocks propped near the walls. But the gourami jsut chased all other gourami around incessently until they died.
So 2 weeks ago I bought 2 more blue gourami, only I got 2 that were maybe 5" long, I figured they could stand up for themselves. The first day I put them in after a water change and moved everything around so the gourami who was already there would be less territorial. Well, it did not work, and he chased the 2 new ones around for hours.
The next day, however, the bigger of the 2 new ones stood up for himself and would not be chased. So the old guy just picked on the smaller newbie. Eventually though, this one would not be chased either.
Then about 1 week ago, the 2 new ones just chased the old, slightly smaller gourami all the time. They followed and chased him from every cave, to the point where he could only hide by jumping into some floating plants and staying there for hours. Then 3 days ago he was dead.
Just yesterday, I found the lead fish dead and raggedly torn, even though no fish, especially the old gourami, ever paid attention to it. It seems with the small gourami dead the two new ones needed someone to bully?
What am I doing wrong? I didn't add anything for months because new fish got killed... finally I found some that wouldn't get pushed around but they instead killed my old bullies, which is very disheartening. I just can't figure out HOW DO YOU KEEP THIS 30 GALLON and not have things killing each other? I just thought I could keep some (3-4) gourami and one leaf fish, but I guess I am wrong. Do I need to add more fish to even the aggro? Won't this overcrowd the tank? I don't think I can add more hiding spots, the whole bottom of the tank is hiding spots, in addition to the floating plants.
It even seems like the only hiding spot any fish likes is under the driftwood, even though I have made small dark spots of the same size with pots, plants, rocks, all over the tank.
The water itself has been consistently good with nothing other than Nitrates over 0, and keeping them below 20, just enough for the plants, and changing 20-40% water once a week.
This is really discouraging, I just feel like an idiot. Is this normal? How often do your fish die/kill each other? How can I add more fish to this tank and not have the current 5" bullies kill everything? It's like eveything I did in the past 4 months has been a waste.
I am pretty discouraged about my 30 gallon tank.
I used to have just 1 blue 3 spot gourami, about 4.5", and one african spotted leaf fish, which I know is not really called that, but anyway it was about 2". I also had one mystery snail, pretty big. These 3 got together very well, but basically any other gourami I added got beaten up/killed by the one in there, and any other leaf fish was also harassed by the current leaf fish.
So for a couple months it was jsut that trio, pretty small for a 30 gallon. People always asked me why so sparse a tank. I would say that anything else got killed, so it wasn't worth it. The tank has lots of hiding spots: plants, pots, driftwood, small gravel caves, large rocks propped near the walls. But the gourami jsut chased all other gourami around incessently until they died.
So 2 weeks ago I bought 2 more blue gourami, only I got 2 that were maybe 5" long, I figured they could stand up for themselves. The first day I put them in after a water change and moved everything around so the gourami who was already there would be less territorial. Well, it did not work, and he chased the 2 new ones around for hours.
The next day, however, the bigger of the 2 new ones stood up for himself and would not be chased. So the old guy just picked on the smaller newbie. Eventually though, this one would not be chased either.
Then about 1 week ago, the 2 new ones just chased the old, slightly smaller gourami all the time. They followed and chased him from every cave, to the point where he could only hide by jumping into some floating plants and staying there for hours. Then 3 days ago he was dead.
Just yesterday, I found the lead fish dead and raggedly torn, even though no fish, especially the old gourami, ever paid attention to it. It seems with the small gourami dead the two new ones needed someone to bully?
What am I doing wrong? I didn't add anything for months because new fish got killed... finally I found some that wouldn't get pushed around but they instead killed my old bullies, which is very disheartening. I just can't figure out HOW DO YOU KEEP THIS 30 GALLON and not have things killing each other? I just thought I could keep some (3-4) gourami and one leaf fish, but I guess I am wrong. Do I need to add more fish to even the aggro? Won't this overcrowd the tank? I don't think I can add more hiding spots, the whole bottom of the tank is hiding spots, in addition to the floating plants.
It even seems like the only hiding spot any fish likes is under the driftwood, even though I have made small dark spots of the same size with pots, plants, rocks, all over the tank.
The water itself has been consistently good with nothing other than Nitrates over 0, and keeping them below 20, just enough for the plants, and changing 20-40% water once a week.
This is really discouraging, I just feel like an idiot. Is this normal? How often do your fish die/kill each other? How can I add more fish to this tank and not have the current 5" bullies kill everything? It's like eveything I did in the past 4 months has been a waste.