Thought it was a good dynamic! :(

[erinoid]

Hey All

I am new to this forum and new to the art of fish keeping in general, so please also consider this my introduction thread. A few weeks ago I setup a 29 gallon tank. And before you ask, (because someone inevitably will lol) I cycled, tested and did everything I was supposed to before I added fish. I had a lot of help from a season veteran friend and the chick from petco. Anywho, I started out with 4 platies; two male and two female. I noticed quickly that the orange one was the alpha male, chasing everyone and hogging all the food. The rainbow male was virtually non-existent, always hiding in the plants. I took another trip to the store about a week later, and brought home a large blue gourami. It appeared as if he was policing the tank. The scared rainbow male was out swimming freely, the bully male was keeping in line and the girls seemed happy. All seemed right in the world. I also added a giant bubble curtain around this time, and they all seemed to love that. Everything has been great for about a week now but I woke up this morning to find that the gourami is chasing the bully platy unmercifully. At first, it seemed like karma (lol) and that he deserved it, but now I am getting worried. Is there anything I can/should do? Thanks in advance for your responses!

 

[randy86]

I wish there was a simple fix but as ling as they are in a tank together , fish will be fish. The best thing I can say is seperate the fish if the relentless chasing keeps happening. I could tell you which one to remove hut would probably say the graumie as he would be the bigger one and could easily bully and kill the other fish. But my best suggestion is to wait a little and let it work itself out. Post pictures! Hopefully everything works out for the best

 

[erinoid]

Thanks Randy! Now I'm noticing that he is chasing and attacking everyone!! I want to get this fish out of here ASAP. I love my little platies and coudn't stand myself if I let something happen to them. Do you know if Petco takes returns on fish? I will be calling them as soon as they open. In the meantime, what's a good way to keep him separated from the other fish? I don't have another tank to put him in. Any ideas?

 

[randy86]

Well thats a though one but if you can find something like a tupperware lide or something plastic you could use to decide the tank that might work. But you would have too it in such a manner not to cut off water circulation. Maybe in a way that the filter can flow over both sides of the barrier

 

[erinoid]

can i take some water from the tank and put it in a big container and put him in there until i can get a hold of petco? thanks again!

 

[randy86]

Yeah you can even bag him but wouldn't recommend.d doing it for more than and hour -hour and a half and after bagged let him float at the top of the tank so there are no dramatic tempature changes