ardie

Hi,

I need your advice and/or feedback. I have recently purchased a Gold Gourami (~ 3 weeks ago). I have a 20 gal long with cories, danios, platies, moderatly planted. I have noticed that my gourami gets very aggresive at feeding, he chases all the other fishes. He really chases the cories away to the point they usually stay in one corner and rarely bottom feed anymore. I feed them their pellets now when the lights go out, hoping they will get a chance to eat something. Is there something I should be doing? I am willing to return him to my LFS if necessary, but would prefer to keep him, he is such a beauty. Thanks

zowie717

Hello, welcome, I suspect that there may be a couple reasons. 1 a gold gourami can grow to be 6 inches in size and gourami are semi agressive fish. my experience has been the with gouramis having the female helps lower agression but also the correct tankmates. How many coreis,danios and platies you have? these are more community fish and a gold gourami who would end up being the biggest fish in your tank and alot bigger than your other fish will probably continue to feed his agressive behavior.

if you want to keep him i would recommend a bigger tank and female tankmates only. You can feed the cories at night when the lights are out this will be easier for them to bottom feed, like you are doing.

you may want to go the route of a dwarf gourami, they are agressive too but much easier in a community tank. I have had success with that type of setup.

but i would probably take him back to LFS or get a much larger tank for him.

also just wanted you to have this.......

Social Behaviors:
The Gold Gourami are generally considered a good community fish when small, but they are not as peaceful as the other gouramis. They have been known to attack smaller fish. When they get older, only keep them with fish their own size. Individuals will show varying degrees of aggression. Some will be very belligerent and will handle their tank mates quite roughly. Others will be peaceful to the point of shyness. The aquarist should be prepared to adapt their tank to suit all personality types.
A mix of neutral personalities is an ideal goal for the range of tank mates. You should not include fish which will provoke this species into aggression as they are often passionate fighters. Fin nippers and gouramis should absolutely never be mixed, as the trailing pelvic fins and generally slower movement of this fish make it the perfect victim. Bullying between gouramis is a likely scenario as these fish, typical of the family, are fixated on constantly working out the details of the hierarchy. Being skilled hunters, extremely small fish or fish fry rarely last long.

Merged posts since they are on the same subject.
Ken

small_fry

would a blue gourami have the same issues?? or are they a little more docile?

Shawnie

all gourami's are very territorial ....sometimes the DG are a little more tolerant but having a back up tank for just in case, is a must

matt6765

I think honey gouramis are non-aggressive correct me if I am wrong.

Shawnie

they are the less agressive of the gourami's but can be nawty if other fish go in their territory or pester them

matt6765

Oh ok

kloseo

some gouramis can be more aggressive than others
I have agold gourami in a 46 g and no problems but when she was in a 30 g she terrorized the tank mates, at the same time my blue gourami attacked my angel fish in my 46g ( and the angel was much bigger than she) but is just fine in the 30g
fish are like people and each has their own personality