Dwarf Gourami aggression....

[Kimlafeiet]

Today I added the final stock to my 55g community tank. 4 boesmani rainbows. My dwarf gourami, who has never shown any aggression before did not take kindly to these new fish. I fed the tank first, turned lights off and put new fish in. Almost immediately, Franco was chasing them. He has not let up all evening. I have even seen him try to nip, but luckily, the rainbows are much faster than he is.
I am really not sure what to do now. I know DGs can be aggressive, but he has never acted like this, nor bothered any newcomers before. He is my oldest (and my first) fish, I have had him for nearly a year now, he is a good 3+ inches. He has been through a lot with me, from all the newbie mistakes (tiny tank, no idea what a cycle was, ich, etc) and I really dont want to have to rehome him, however, I paid a fortune for these rainbows, and since they are the direction I would like to head in with my fish, I cant remove them ( cant return them either, only had 2 weeks garuantee, and they have been in my qt tank for just over that already).
Have any of you had any issues with aggresive DGs? What did you do? Didi it help? I had no back up plan for this, as I truly never expected this from him. Ugh

 

[Musicfreak]

If the new fish are smaller than the groumi that is probably the reason he is being aggressive. I love grouamis I think they are a great fish. When I had smaller fish in my tank my grouami would chase the other fish around and try to nip at them.

Do you have any hiding places in your tank for the new fish? Giving them places to hide might help, other than that the only thing I could think of is rehoming.

 

[Rivercats]

The best way to deal with this type of aggression is to temp move the DG to a container, totally rearrange the tank, then put the DG back in. What this does is makes the DG think it's in a new tank in which it has no defined territory and most of the time the aggression stops. Right now he's in the "this tank is mine" territorial mode.

 

[Kimlafeiet]

Thanks! He seemed to be less grumpy this morning, and all the rainbows were out swimming around, so hopefully he will calm down. I do have plenty of hiding places, caves, plants, etc. The rainbows are not much smaller than Franco, but I think I may try to remove him and re-scape the tank and put him back in.
Rivercats, do you think rescaping the tank will freak out my glass cats? How do your cats do when you rescape your plants, etc? Mine were sooooo skiddish when I first got them, I would hate to freak them out again, lol.

 

[Rivercats]

My fish, even the skiddish ones are used to me working in the tanks so personality I don't have an issue. But if he's calming down I'd wait and see how he does over the next few days and only rescape if it's necessary.

 

[Kimlafeiet]

Thanks. I think I will watch him for a couple days and hope he calms down. My fish seem fine when I do my weekly water change and cleaning, but I have a feeling if I uprooted thier little world, they might freak. Lol

Also......Rivercats, thank you for "persuading" me to get the glass cats a while back (I had originally planned to put them in my 20 planted, but people kept saying a school was too much for that size tank). I did rearrange things and add a school to my 55 instead, but I LOVE them. They are the funniest little things. I am so glad I ended up getting them

 

[kdklovesfish]

I have two male dwarf gouramis and at first they hated each other. I did what rivercat suggested and rescaped and put both problem fish back in at the exact same time. No more issues. But I have one Cory that is really shy and rescaping did freak it out so I didn't see it for a few days. After that all was good and back to normal.