Blue Gourami...

[MoeZ822]

I have a blue gourami that has been acting very odd lately. About a week and a half ago, I moved my blue gourami from my 29 gallon tank that has 5 tiger barbs, 1 gold gourami, and 1 paradise gourami to my 47 gallon tank with 6 angelfish. The blue gourami was getting nipped and chased around the 29 gallon tank so I hoped the angels would be a little nicer to him!! Well the good news is that the angelfish don't even notice he is in the tank but for the past few days he has been swimming around the tank very fast and non-stop. He does laps around the whole tank. Whenever I look at the tank, he is swimming around. He just doesn't seem to stop (I get tired just watching him) . I don't know if this is normal behavior for this type of fish or if there is something wrong.

The nitrates are all good. The pH is high (8.0) but seems stable. The ammonia is at .5.

Any suggestions...

 

[rich311k]

He may be settling in. Do you have places for him to hide? That is a lot fish in that tank. Your ammonia should be 0. Is the tank new?

 

[MoeZ822]

The tank is fairly new. I am doing water changes twice a week to get the parameters where they need to be.

The blue gourami has plenty of places to hide but the angelfish never bother him. They actually seem to stay completely out of his way, especially when he is "crazy swimming." He does seem to start his "crazy swimming" after he eats. I don't know is that is significant.

There's a lot of fish in the 47 gallon tank??? I did a lot of research and found that I should have 1 gallon of water for every inch of max growth of the fish. There are 6 angelfish and 1 blue gourami. It is my understanding that the angels can get to 6 inches and the gourami to 4 - is that wrong? Should I take some of them out?

 

[AndrewH]

In my opinion I think you're fine. You shouldn't have to remove anything. The only thing is the Angels and Gourami's are territorial fish but if you haven't had any conflict so far then I wouldn't worry.

Also I have an opaline gourami who does crazy swimming every so often. She is full of energy and color and loves to zoom around. But the thing is it's only so often not all the time. The fish could just be settling in like rich said or maybe it's a little stressed from being nipped at in the last tank.

 

[Alaris]

There's a lot of fish in the 47 gallon tank??? I did a lot of research and found that I should have 1 gallon of water for every inch of max growth of the fish. There are 6 angelfish and 1 blue gourami. It is my understanding that the angels can get to 6 inches and the gourami to 4 - is that wrong? Should I take some of them out?

Here are the exceptions to the inch/gallon rule:
The eventual ADULT size of the fish (you took this into account already), the eventual ADULT aggression of the fish (aggressive fish need 3-10 times more space depending on aggression and size), and the messiness of the fish.