Aggressive Dwarf Gourami - needs algae eater

[FishAreFriendsN]

Hello everyone. I was hoping someone out there with experience could give me some advice.

We have a beautiful, but aggressive male Dwarf Gourami. We had him in a 20g well planted community tank with 2 platies and 4 guppies, but he would constantly harass the platies. We added shrimp for a clean up crew, but he thought they were snacks….so we have removed him to a lovely 10g where he is the only inhabitant. (I cannot blame him, personally I think shrimp are delicious.)

I recently tried to add one platy to his tank, but he chased and harassed him nearly to death, so he is alone again. I would like to know if there are any algae eaters who you think he would leave alone. I understand many of those types of fish are peaceful themselves, but it’s the Gourami I’m worried about chasing them about.

Thanks for any advice!

[Aiken Drum]

Snails?

[FishAreFriendsN]

I’ve read some about snails overpopulating the tank, and I would prefer to avoid that future headache. Also, how many snails are we talking about? Are they that efficient when it comes to cleaning algae? We have a few stones in there that we would like to stay pretty and clean… But they’re currently covered in algae

[Aiken Drum]

Nerite snails cant breed in freshwater. They do a very good job at algae. 2 or 3 in a 10g.

Edit. Nerite snails will breed and lay eggs. But the eggs need brackish water to hatch.

[Autumnsky]

Also consider reducing the lights on time. If you like seeing the fish when you are home, set a wall plug timer for them to be on when you ste there the most. Or if you are home all day, you could try having the timer switch off during a part of the day and back on again.

How long are the lights running on for?

And as far as a plecostomus, there are just a couple small sizes, maybe just one possible for a 10G, not positive if that is large enough. They aren't always that good at cleaning rocks. And I thinks it's common name is Bulldog or Clown ???, not positive, it's about 3", I'll see if I can check it's actual name.

[Aiken Drum]

Originally Posted by Autumnsky

Also consider reducing the lights on time. If you like seeing the fish when you are home, set a wall plug timer for them to be on when you ste there the most. Or if you are home all day, you could try having the timer switch off during a part of the day and back on again.

How long are the lights running on for?

And as far as a plecostomus, there are just a couple small sizes, maybe just one possible for a 10G, not positive if that is large enough. They aren't always that good at cleaning rocks. And I thinks it's common name is Bulldog or Clown ???, not positive, it's about 3", I'll see if I can check it's actual name.

Clown plecos are the smaller ones.

[Autumnsky]

Ah, good. But also saw recommended for 20G