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- 56
I've made all sorts of mistakes in my so-far short journey into fish keeping, but I've not regretted anything as much as buying honey gourami.
Went to the shop, 5 please, if and only if you can sex them for me - 1 male 4 female. No problem says the shopkeeper and puts them in a bag for me. Within a couple of weeks there were two with full mating colours on so I took one back to the shop where the shopkeeper moans about two weeks being too long and excuse and excuse but I made him exchange it. Over the last six months two more have shown to be males. so I have 3 males 2 females. Non stop fighting and bullying ever since. I've two spare tanks which are too small really but I tried separating them out between all three and there is no combination which doesn't result in one or more fish getting bullied.
The constant aggression and violence scares the rest of the fish, my cories are just hiding from them, I've lost three harlequin rasboras because they've jumped out to get away from them. I haven't seen my tetras in weeks. The girl gourami who is bullied most is the palest of straw yellow and is almost translucent, the others never leave her alone she must be terrified, but if I put her into a tank on her own she just looks lost without company, and the other girl then gets three males all kicking the daylights out of her.
My display tank was a proper "my first fish tank" effort, pandas, tetras, rasboras, a few shrimp, and it was lovely, all happy and getting along, utterly, utterly peaceful. And these wretched creatures have spoiled it.
Here's what I'm going to do, all five are going into a bag and first chance I get I'm walking into the shop, putting the bag on the counter and walking out leaving them there, and I hope I never lay eyes on another one.
And if you're reading this, it's all your fault Maidenhead Aquatics.
Oh and to add insult to injury they're now making babies. I saw four fry the other day and I'm so troubled by them I can't even bring myself to look if they're still alive. I hope not.
Went to the shop, 5 please, if and only if you can sex them for me - 1 male 4 female. No problem says the shopkeeper and puts them in a bag for me. Within a couple of weeks there were two with full mating colours on so I took one back to the shop where the shopkeeper moans about two weeks being too long and excuse and excuse but I made him exchange it. Over the last six months two more have shown to be males. so I have 3 males 2 females. Non stop fighting and bullying ever since. I've two spare tanks which are too small really but I tried separating them out between all three and there is no combination which doesn't result in one or more fish getting bullied.
The constant aggression and violence scares the rest of the fish, my cories are just hiding from them, I've lost three harlequin rasboras because they've jumped out to get away from them. I haven't seen my tetras in weeks. The girl gourami who is bullied most is the palest of straw yellow and is almost translucent, the others never leave her alone she must be terrified, but if I put her into a tank on her own she just looks lost without company, and the other girl then gets three males all kicking the daylights out of her.
My display tank was a proper "my first fish tank" effort, pandas, tetras, rasboras, a few shrimp, and it was lovely, all happy and getting along, utterly, utterly peaceful. And these wretched creatures have spoiled it.
Here's what I'm going to do, all five are going into a bag and first chance I get I'm walking into the shop, putting the bag on the counter and walking out leaving them there, and I hope I never lay eyes on another one.
And if you're reading this, it's all your fault Maidenhead Aquatics.
Oh and to add insult to injury they're now making babies. I saw four fry the other day and I'm so troubled by them I can't even bring myself to look if they're still alive. I hope not.
)
