Paradise Gourami Advice Needed

[hjsvt]

So in the beginning of March I added 4 Julli Corys, 5 Lemon Tetra and 5 Cherry Barbs to a cycled 29 gallon tank. After a month of healthy fish and no issues, I decided I wanted a center piece fish and did some reading. I decided I wanted to add a dwarf gourami and some amano shrimp. So I headed to the lfs an hour drive away. Of course they didn't have any dwarf gourami in stock but they had some Paradise Fish that looked amazing. And it was a gourami so it was the same kind of fish I was interested in. The person that helped me was great and answered all my questions. I did tell him what I had in my tank and asked if everything would work. I left with 12 Amano Shrimp and 1 male Paradise fish. I got home and entered my final stock into AquaAdvisor just to double check and all these warning about incompatibility came up. The Paradise fish was too aggressive for my stock. Also supposedly they are jumpers and I have an open tank. So I called the lfs to question them on why they would sell me something not compatible with my current stock. And they said the person that helped me was the fish manager and had 20 years of fish experience and won’t sell me something that won’t work but I could bring the fish back if I wanted. So I did some more reading on line and found several instances where people said in their experience Paradise fish were not as aggressive as thought. So I thought I’d give it a try and see how things went. Fast forward almost a month later and tonight I watched for the first time my Paradise fish chasing my lemon tetras around the tank really fast. Before now I’ve seen absolutely no aggression. The Lemon Tetras have always chased each other all around but otherwise everything has been really peaceful for a month. I even have pictures of everybody feeding at the surface and the Paradise fish checking out the Julii Corys eating their pellets on the bottom. I never saw him steal food and again the Lemon Tetras were the most aggressive and would swipe the pellets and take off with them. Since I have feed them tonight I haven’t seen any more chasing. I don’t see any damage on any of the Lemon Tetras. So what do I do? Do lfs take fish back a month later? So if I can’t trust the fish manager with 20 years of fish experience in a face to face conversation, who the heck can I trust? (By the way he did sell me at the same time very expensive shrimp that became expensive fish food with no warning whatsoever. I think I might have 3 of 12 left but only because I tried to create a shrimp safe spot with driftwood and they have become masters of hiding and only come out at night.) On a positive note, things have otherwise gone really well with the fish over the last 2 months. No losses, no diseases and until tonight very peaceful. Anyone have any thoughts on what direction I go next? Are there any Paradise Fish owners out there with them housed in a community tank? Thanks in advance for your help and thoughts.

 

[mom2reds]

I had to take back a paradise fish do to him killing off many of my other fish even my Odessa barbs. I think there may be some that are more peaceful but mine was very aggresive. But they are beautiful fish.