Need help with Dwarf Gourmais and my tank in general

[FeariousGeorge]

Ok so I have a 30 gallon tank with driftwood and live plants, I have 5 neon tetras, 2 khuli loachs, two dwarf gourmais, and i hope to get more fish in the future such as platies or yoyo loach. Anyways I know ive been overfeeding because my water is tinted orange should i do a water change and change the bio bag in the filter? Also my dwarf gourmais are both males, and one chases the other one around the tank and nips it but i have not seen any actual damage on the poor dwarf gourmai can I do anything about this? My neon tetras also bicker between each other. The dwarf gourmai that has been nipped at has stopped eating and when i feed it chills in the corner is this from the water quality or the other aggresive dwarf gourmai? Please help I dont have another tank to put one of the dwarf gourmai in should i just add more cover?

 

[coralbandit]

Change water don't touch your filter.Make sure you de chlorinate and try match temp as close as possible.
Have you ever changed water and if so how often?
I do 50% on my tanks every week to get them at their best.
2 male dwarf gouramis is bad.The solution is to give back the subdominant to the store.He will likely not survive with the other.DGs are not the best fish or even gourami to get .Many are already infected with DGI[look it up with gouramis].
The tetras should be fine they would like 5 more probably to help them shoal...

 

[Mebbid]

1st - Dwarf gourami are very peaceful fish, as long as there are no other gourami in the tank. The only way you're gonna realistically make this work is by rehoming one of the gourami preferably the aggressive one.

The aggression between the tetras is normal, however adding more of them might help.

2nd - Brown colored water typically means 1 of 2 things. Either you have driftwood in the tank or an algae bloom.

If you have driftwood you can add either purigen or activated carbon. Purigen is most preferred.

Large (50%) water changes will also help.

3rd - Don't change your bio media. It's just gonna cause problems because you will be getting rid of all the beneficial bacteria.

4th - What are the parameters of the tank? pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?

 

[FeariousGeorge]

I have changed my water it was about two weeks ago I usualy do it every other week

 

[FeariousGeorge]

Change water don't touch your filter.Make sure you de chlorinate and try match temp as close as possible.
Have you ever changed water and if so how often?
I do 50% on my tanks every week to get them at their best.
2 male dwarf gouramis is bad.The solution is to give back the subdominant to the store.He will likely not survive with the other.DGs are not the best fish or even gourami to get .Many are already infected with DGI[look it up with gouramis].
The tetras should be fine they would like 5 more probably to help them shoal...

Also is there any way I could do something to keep both dwarf Gourmais or is it just impossible and should i really be worried about DGI in my dwarf gourmais and I had 7 tetras but two died from being beaten up there tails were ripped off im not sure of the other tetras did that or the dwarf gourmais

 

[Mebbid]

Also is there any way I could do something to keep both dwarf Gourmais or is it just impossible and should i really be worried about DGI in my dwarf gourmais

A second tank.

 

[coralbandit]

No real way [good way] to keep dwarf gouramis together IMO.
The DGI is nothing you can do about. Incurable and basically the fish has it from the supplier or doesn't .Some of the research suggest that the genetics on this fish are so poor that the DGI may just show at any time whether the fish is infected or not from the start.

Dwarf gouramis raised for aquarium trade in Singapore may carry dwarf gourami iridovirus. Recent research has shown that 22% of Singapore Trichogaster lalius carry this virus
Taken from;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_gourami
The darker corners of fish keeping already know this fish should be banned for sale as the publics access to accurate info is very limited..Think about it ,would you announce one of your best sellers is defective?
Most just blame the store they bought them from anyways...
Do you have a test kit for your water?

 

[FeariousGeorge]

No real way [good way] to keep dwarf gouramis together IMO.
The DGI is nothing you can do about. Incurable and basically the fish has it from the supplier or doesn't .Some of the research suggest that the genetics on this fish are so poor that the DGI may just show at any time whether the fish is infected or not from the start.

Dwarf gouramis raised for aquarium trade in Singapore may carry dwarf gourami iridovirus. Recent research has shown that 22% of Singapore Trichogaster lalius carry this virus
Taken from;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_gourami
The darker corners of fish keeping already know this fish should be banned for sale as the publics access to accurate info is very limited..Think about it ,would you announce one of your best sellers is defective?
Most just blame the store they bought them from anyways...
Do you have a test kit for your water?

I have a ph test kit i was thinking I can go down to petsmart and test my water for amonia and nitrates there.

 

[smallfry53]

1st - Dwarf gourami are very peaceful fish, as long as there are no other gourami in the tank. The only way you're gonna realistically make this work is by rehoming one of the gourami preferably the aggressive one.

I always read that DGS are super peaceful, but I don't think that's always the case. I had one that I had to put in a different tank because it was being a terror in one of my tanks. I had it with a school/shoal of tetras and a pair of bolivian rams in a 29g.

 

[Mpwallace1]

It’s a shame about dwarf gouramis. Pet smart sold me 2 small males powder blues to cycle my new tank with last May. One was a complete bully with the other so I created 2 caves and dense fake plants ( until my live ones grew) on each side of the tank. He would chase the other one back to his side but they never bit each other. Finally the other one caught up in size so none is scared of each other, and they just non violently antagonize each other by sneaking into each other’s territory and waiting to get chased back. I really wish they would get along better however. They are my favourite and oldest fish in my community aquarium. I also temporarily got a big colour picture of a gourami and taped it to the side of the tank so the bully knew there’s bigger out there, I swear it worked...for a few weeks at least. Regardless I’m keeping both because none of them are showing any anti-social behaviour. Now the DGI thing someone suggested that I didn’t know about scares me.

 

[FeariousGeorge]

It’s a shame about dwarf gouramis. Pet smart sold me 2 small males powder blues to cycle my new tank with last May. One was a complete bully with the other so I created 2 caves and dense fake plants ( until my live ones grew) on each side of the tank. He would chase the other one back to his side but they never bit each other. Finally the other one caught up in size so none is scared of each other, and they just non violently antagonize each other by sneaking into each other’s territory and waiting to get chased back. I really wish they would get along better however. They are my favourite and oldest fish in my community aquarium. I also temporarily got a big colour picture of a gourami and taped it to the side of the tank so the bully knew there’s bigger out there, I swear it worked...for a few weeks at least. Regardless I’m keeping both because none of them are showing any anti-social behaviour. Now the DGI thing someone suggested that I didn’t know about scares me.

Do both of you dwarf gourmais eat fine?

 

[Mpwallace1]

Do both of you dwarf gourmais eat fine?

Yes they do. I drop food on both sides of the 45 gallon tank, and when I step back they both go after it anxiously. I mix it up with frozen or dried blood worms, dried or frozen mysis shrimp, flakes and small bug bites. What ever they miss from the top the glow-light danios grab, and what they miss near the bottom the albino cherry barbs and neon tetras get What ever lands on the bottom I hope the golden mystery snail or the dwarf pleco gets.
Fingers crossed about this disease I didn’t know about. I guess mine are about 8 months old now. I hope they don’t get it. They live to about 2 years.

 

[HORNET1]

I have a Dwarf Gourami in my 29 Gal. Planted Community Tank. It does just fine with my 6 neon tetras, 2 platys, 4 cory cats, numerous shrimp, and my small pleco. However, I transferred a Gold Gourami from his solitary home in my Fluval Spec-V and almost immediately, the Gold Gourami attacked the Dwarf. He terrorized that poor fish and so I put him back in solitary confinement. Everything then returned to normal and everyone is happy again

 

[FeariousGeorge]

Thanks for all who responded I did a water change and after my gourmai perked up i checked my ph its 7.0 which is perfect, now my gourmai is still being chased sometimes but he eats good now ???

 

[Mebbid]

Sorry to break it to you, but a water change and 7.0 pH is not gonna remotely solve your problems. You really need to rehome one of those gourami.

The older they get the aggression will just ramp up.