cincnod

Hi all! Im a newbie as far as posting on this site, but have been reading the forums since I got my tank. Everyone seems very helpful and I have gotten a lot of useful information from other threads, so thanks!

Anyways, about 2-3 months ago I took possession of a 29 gallon tank And at the moment I have 4 Opaline Gourami's (1 male 3.5-4in, 2 females 2.5-3in, and one im not so sure on 3.5-4in) in it as well as 3 small Mystery snail's. At first the male chased the other three around quite frequently but stopped after a week or so, they all chase on occasion but I assume this is just normal playing, no ripped fins so I assume all is well. Also in the beginning I had a yoyo loach which died from stress as it was constantly chased. I replaced the yoyo with a Raphael Spotted catfish. There are quite a few hiding spots, and the Raphael was slightly larger than the Gourami's. They got along well, tho occasionally the large male would chase the Raphael. This all ended one day when the Raphael chased back for about 15 mins. Interesting to watch, as the Raphael was normally very lazy. Then about 3 weeks later I woke up one morning to find my Raphael badly injured, fins torn, and a large strip missing from its side, which really surprised me as he had very long spiked fins, and spiked along side, which were'nt for show as when i put him in tank originally he pinched the heck out of me. He and the large male Gourami apparently got into it and the Raphael put up a decent fight as the male now has some decent length battle scars but is otherwise just fine. The Raphael died later that day in an isolation tank. That was about 2 weeks ago now, and I've trying to decide what I should do. I'd like to add some other things to the tank, just not sure what to go with. Any suggestions? I seem to have rather bad luck with getting aggressive Gourami's as I've had them turn evil in the past. Would love some advice.

welshalien

I'm so sorry about your catfish. I have 2 opalines (a male and a female) and they can be little terrorists. My male is only agressive towards the female -- to the point I had to move her to a different tank. She was pale and twitchy, fins all ripped up and she hadn't grown at all since I got them...whereas he's gotten huge. She's recovered very well. Sounds like your male has claimed the entire tank as his territory. I've heard others suggest temporarily removing the aggresor, rearranging the "furniture", and then reintroducing the problem fish. I think it resets their territory switch, so to speak. Good luck.

platy ben

I have a male and female opaline gourami, the male chases the female every now and then, but no damage at all.

Anyway, you could either,

As welshalien said, take out the male and re-arrange the decoration in the tank and put him back in.

Or if worst comes to worst

Take him back, and get a young male, or just leave the 3 females alone together without a male.

rainman

it seems that opaline gauramis are more agressive than most other gauramis,
when I tried introducing them into my gaurami tank theystressed out all the other tank inhabitants, and eventualy the injured them selves by fighting or on objects in the tank. this all happened within 3 days.