Dwarf Gouramis nipping fins/What to do with my rasboras?

[ReyK]

I recently got home from serving in the military and decided to take up fishkeeping again after a long break, and I decided to get a 20 gallon tall tank (I got a kit from Aqueon with a QuietFlow 20 filter, LED lighted hood, and a 100 watt heater). It has two chunks of red lava rock and two rather large pieces of driftwood as well as a small assortment of plants (I added them within the last week so they're not full or pretty yet). For stocking I put 4 powder blue dwarf gouramis, 5 harlequin rasboras, 5 striped khuli loaches, and two black mystery snails.

I feel like this tank is over stocked, especially since three of the gouramis have become very territorial and started picking on all the other fish in the tank. So far they've killed three of my rasboras and at least two of the loaches, so I moved my remaining two rasboras to my baby betta's 2.5 gallon planted tank temporarily until I can figure out what to do with them.

I'm fairly certain the fourth gourami is going to die soon since the other three have nipped his fins and scales so much that he can barely swim and one of his sides looks like the scales have been torn off, but I don't have another tank set up that I can put him in at the moment.

I have another ten gallon tank just sitting around, but it's dirty and I only have the tank itself, none of the accessories. I'm considering setting it up, but my budget is a little tight at the moment and I don't exactly have space to put it since I live in a tiny home that has very limited horizontal surfaces that can support that kind of weight.

Do y'all have any suggestions or ideas on what I should do? If I've done anything that you disagree with, let's talk about it, I'm all for discussion

PS- I'm thinking of possibly adding some colorful shrimp to the 2.5 at some point? Good idea or no? Your thoughts?

UPDATE: The fourth gourami unfortunately did die. I found him a few minutes ago with his tail nearly gone and the injury on his side extremely swollen. He has been removed from the tank.

 

[goatnad]

Many claim that you can keep dwarf gouramis together but in my years I have found that is not the case. I personally keep all gouramis separate. I would recommend moving one to the 10g even without filtration on it. Gouramis are labyrinth fish and can breathe air just like humans. I also recommend taking one back to the store or give it to someone. If you don't want to get rid or move any then you need to give them a lot of hiding places. Add tons of decor and plants.

 

[King Fisher]

Do you know who the culprit Gourami is or is it all remaining 3? If it's all 3 I'd take 2 back to your LFS and keep 1. If it's 1, remove him and take him back to your LFS.

I'm also not a fan of keeping Gourami's in groups because of the issues you are dealing with now. They usually take large tanks and hiding spots IME. Some species such as sparkling or honey Gourami's seem to work in groups but I've never owned them.

If you got a Betta in a 2.5g I wouldn't add shrimp. I've tried this twice now with two different Bettas in a 3g tank and they both killed and ate the shrimp.