aaron

Hi,

I have had my red tail shark in a community tank for almost a year now with no problems. Yesterday, as a christmas gift I was given a kissing Guarami and 6 tiger barbs. Well the red tail absolutely hates the guarami and chases it everywhere. What should I do? Why has my beloved red tail suddenly turned so aggressive on the Guarami? When the Guarami gets bigger(its still small) will the shark leave it alone?

Oh by the way I have a 55 gallon tank. 3 platies, 3 mollies, 2 corys, red tail, kissing guarami, 6 tiger barbs. I would say it had plenty of hiding spots.

Shawnie

welcome to fihslore!!!

rts are normally very very territorial and feels threatened for some reason...a suggestion would be take out the rts, re arrange the deco and move things around so he will be a bit confused, then return him after an hour and see if he calms down at all...the gourami wont be boss if the red tail already established that role...he will just be a skittish gourami ....goodluck!

aaron

Hi, Thanks for the advice. I have heard of changing the decor ,but could this possibly reset who the boss is? I also know it is stressful for a fish to be bullied ,but with cover will he be fine? I have re arranged the decor and have made 3 nice hiding places, one in the midle and and one in eatch corner. hopefully the rts will choose one of the side spots so i can seclude him. Haha am I going to have a ten inch gourami afraid of a six inch rts? Fish amaze me.

k19

i agree rts are very territorial change the decor and if that does not help try get more rts they sometimes get less threatend and wont attack

GouramiGirl1221

I don't think that re-arranging the decor will "reset" who the boss of the tank is in this situation. From what I've heard, and what others on the thread are saying, RTS are relatively aggressive and very territorial, and the kissers are normally only aggressive with their species and pretty calm with other breeds of fish. I had a kisser for about a month before I realized she would get a foot long, and at that point all I had was a 10 gal, so I returned her to my LFS. While I had her, though, she was great and I didn't see any aggression issues from her.

You may see an issue with the barbs nipping at the fins of your other fish though, so keep an eye out for that as well...I know that wasn't your question, but you said they were a gift so I wasn't sure if you had done much research on them. Also, I'm not sure once your kisser reaches the foot long mark, if it will try to munch on your platies. You may want to do some research on that before it gets too much larger.

Red1313

Unless it's a tank that is well over 100 gal then do not get more RTS. They're species intolerant and the situation will end badly for one of them. There is some sucess with multiple RTS in heavily planted tanks with few lines of site and providing eash shark with roughly 55 gal's each...

aaron

I have researched the tiger barbs and my take on them is that when they are in a school they are not as agressive. The kissing Guarami was totally unexspected and I hate having something I know nothing about. People oversimplify fish in that if they think one its "pretty" then they just wana add it to the tank. The shark has stopped ramming the guarami ,but she just stays in one little spot. I have a spare 10 gal tank should i just set that up for the rts? You guys are awsome thanks so much for the advice.

k19

set it up and put him in for a short period and see if he carms down