|  |  | 
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Sad situation!
I have a gold gourami in a pretty bad situation right now. Here's how it breaks down:
First of all, we have a 35-gallon tank out in our livingroom. In it we had a tinfoil barb, gold gourami, paradise fish, firemouth cichlid, among other things. I know most people wouldn't reccommend having most of these fish together, but I had never had a problem with fin-nipping or anything like that and they all thrived.
More recently, I just got a 20-gallon tank a few months ago and set it up with a bunch of live plants. I moved a few of my fish in one at a time after the first few weeks of having it, and have not had one die in it yet. About 3 days ago, I moved my firemouth cichlid (only about 2 inches long by the way) into it not thinking it would do much because it was never aggressive in my other tank. I checked on it daily to make sure it wasn't doing any harm. Just today, I turned on the light to discover my gold gourami was missing. I looked around for it and finally found it upside-down (still alive!) behind some rocks. I quickly positioned it upright and discovered that the firemouth cichlid must have attacked it and bitten off its pectoral fins almost completely on one side, and shredded them on the other. It's also got a bunch of red bite marks near its tail.
So basically this fish can't swim upwards at all and is just kinda laying around. Funny thing is he doesn't seem like he's dying besides that fact, he's not lethargic or anything. He's still bouncing around the bottom. What should I do with this fish, or how long might it take for the fins to heal? I dropped in some shrimp pellets near him so he can eat them when they soften...
Dang :<
I moved the cichlid back into our other tank by the way. I'm considering giving it to my cousin who has a 55-gal cichlid tank at his house. | 
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| can you get a breeder net or hang on the side type? gouramis are labyrinth fish and need air from the top to survive..then some stress coat and some fish protector with prestine water will help alot...I hope he makes it! | |
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Mentor
| Welcome to Fishlore! Was the Paradise Fish in the same tank? If so I'd say he'd be a more likely suspect than the Firemouth. | |
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| To answer your question, yes the paradise fish was in the same tank, but he had been with the gold gourami for about 3 months now and I had never seen any aggression towards either even when the pradsie fish was building a bubble nest for the fun of it. When any fish would approach the nest, the paradise fish would get angry, but when the gold gourami approached it he didn't care at all. On the other hand, I had seen the firemouth flare its gills at both the gourami and the paradise fish.
I'm kinda thinking I had too small of a tank for them, though. Shoulda thought it out before moving the cichlid in there.
To the other person, I made sure to put some stress coat in there, too. I'll see what I can do for the other stuff!
Last edited by Wolfenheim; February 6th, 2009 at 06:51 PM.
| |
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Keeper
| I agree with Shawnie. Gouramis do need air. I hope your gourami makes it! | |
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Mentor
| Firemouths are generally quite placid, wheras Paradise fish are aggressive, I'd keep an eye on him if I were you. I'd say a Paradise fish would be far more likely to actually attack a Gourami than a Firemouth would. | |
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Oh, good news! I slowly guided the gold gourami up to the top and he could support himself and swim around after that. Hopefully he'll pull through. :>
I'll keep an eye on the paradise fish, too. I have seen some pretty aggressive ones, but I don't think mine's a particularly mean one. Thanks for the advice, though! | |
| | |
February 6th, 2009
|
| | Fish Keeper
| Well, that's good news! Probably he needed some air to support himself. | |
| | |
February 7th, 2009
|
| | Fish Master
| I can't help you out on who attacked him but I've got a paradise fish and it'll hold it's own against my red tail shark. Yours sounds like a male and as they get old the often need to go in a tank by themselves b/c there isn't any tank mates that can stand up to them. However they do make good community fish while they're young. Here's a good link about them you'll have to scroll down a bit.
Hope that you're gourmi recovers! | |
| | | |
Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads 
