beezie

Hi folks! I have had fish for about four years now. For two years I have had a 30 gallon tank. Many fish have come and gone. I have a mean blue gourami that continues to be around. I should get rid of him but he is too pretty. The problem is he is very much a bully. He has injured another fish or I assume he has. I have angels and silver dollars in the tank with him. All quite large. Well, the other day I noticed that the angel had only one ventral fin and an injured spot near his mouth. I removed him from the tank. My question is with the fin. Will the fin grow back?? Will an infection occur at the spot on the body where thew fin was? Any suggestions!!! beezie

Isabella

Silver dollars and angelfish are compatible, and silver dollars should not be aggressive toward angels. So it must be the gourami. Gouramis and angels are not really compatible to be in one tank. I think the ventral fin should grow back. As for an infection, it MAY develop if your water quality is poor. If I were you, I'd perform large and frequent water changes until the fin at least starts to grow back, and any possibility of wounds is eliminated. By clean water I mean very little or 0 nitrate, and of course 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

By the way, a 30 gallon tank is too small for silver dollars. They should be kept in at least a 50 gallon tank. They're schooling fish as well, which meas they should be kept in groups of 6 at least. How many silver dollars do you have? How many angels? Angels do best when in pairs, for example only 2 angels per one tank. How large is the gourami? Any other gouramis? What and how many other fish?

I am suspecting your tank is overcrowded. Overcrowding will often lead to fights and getting hurt.

If you ever want to get rid of the gourami, DO NOT KILL IT! Please find it a suitable home instead.

beezie

Hi, I have three angels, three silvers and the one mean gourami. They are all around three inches except the gourami. He is probably 4 1/2 by 2 1/2. The dollars and angels get along fine. The dollars and gour. get along fine. The gourami was large when I got him. He was with his own kind but was mean enough to the point of me moving all the gouramis to another tank. They are very little compared to the mean one. That is why I went with the angels and dollars. They are all the same size as the big blue gourami. I changed a large plant that I thought was too picky. It crossed my mind that perhaps the angel got hurt moving in and out and aroung the plant getting food, exploring, etc. I may have to put a for sale sign on the big blue gourami seeing that I do have little blue gourmis in another tank. Hopefully the angel will recover. beezie

Isabella

Beezie, I have merged the two messages by you because they're basically the same, and I've already replied to one of them.