Kissing Gourami And Bichir

Hi! I have a kissing goramie and a bichir in a 20 gallon aquarium. The bichir is 4 inches (about) and the kissing goramie is also about 4 inches. Keep in mind this is ONLY a QT tank, THIS IS NOT THEIR PERMINATE HOME. Anyway I was looking through my live stream cameras I have on my aquariums and I saw my kissing goramie chasing the bichir around. Is this going to be a problem, I have never seen that kind of behavior from him and want to know if this could be a problem.

Hi! I recently got my first Bichir and have it in QT. He has been doing great, he has been eating, swimming around, and generally doing well. Anyway I have live cameras on my aquariums and today I was looking at one and saw that the only other fish in the tank, a marbled goramie, was chasing him around. I thought ok, this must just be a weird little thing that he is doing. Anyway I got home to find the bichir on his side, still breathing, but looking poorly. I started to drain the tank 50% of the way and the move some decorations around to make more hiding places. I then filled the tank back up, put in some slime boosting medication, and put in some blood worms to see if he would eat. He hasn't moved since I did that and that was a couple hours ago. He is still breathing but I am very concerned. Any advice? I was able to touch him when I was moving stuff around and he seemed stiff. Also he didn't react when I touched him. The tank is a 20 gallon tank and I don't know what the current water parameters are but I did a large water change so they should be good. (BTW I do check parameters on my other tanks but I don't worry as much with QT) Thanks in advance

 

This can be problematic as gourami (kissing in particular) use their lips to establish dominance and become aggressive. Your QT tank may need a divider.

 

Hi! I have a kissing goramie and a bichir in a 20 gallon aquarium. The bichir is 4 inches (about) and the kissing goramie is also about 4 inches. Keep in mind this is ONLY a QT tank, THIS IS NOT THEIR PERMINATE HOME. Anyway I was looking through my live stream cameras I have on my aquariums and I saw my kissing goramie chasing the bichir around. Is this going to be a problem, I have never seen that kind of behavior from him and want to know if this could be a problem.

Hello - It might be. Make sure there tons of hiding places, this might lessen aggression. Maybe divide the tank?

 

Ok, one more question:
After QT this kissing goramie is going into my 130 gallon with my blood parrot and my Oscar. The Oscar doesn’t like to fight and he never defends himself and I the blood parrot can’t defend himself welll with his mouth being weird. My Blood parrot is currently the dominant fish in the tank but will the kissing goramie be a problem with them? Thanks

 

Ok, one more question:
After QT this kissing goramie is going into my 130 gallon with my blood parrot and my Oscar. The Oscar doesn’t like to fight and he never defends himself and I the blood parrot can’t defend himself welll with his mouth being weird. My Blood parrot is currently the dominant fish in the tank but will the kissing goramie be a problem with them? Thanks

Gouramis usually become meals for oscars.

 

akcarroll12 I am not worried about the Oscar at all. I don't think that Oscar would attack much less eat any tankmate over 3 inches. The goramie is big enough as to where the Oscar can’t swallow him whole and that Oscar never attacks anything in my tank, he also never defends himself against attackers. I am more worried about the Blood parrot. Thank you though

My bichir is on its side and is not doing well, what can I do!?!?? I don’t know what triggered it? Thanks

 

Can you check the water for this situation? Is the tank heated? If so, to what temp?

 

Yes the tank is heated, it is around 76 degrees. I can get water parameters tommorow but today I am to tired and my arm has been hurting.

Doing that water changes was hard

 

No worries, just monitor him as best you can and update me and anyone else that shows up if you see anything worrying.
I do have to be honest though, I haven't seen many fish recover from that state

 

It will be upsetting. He was doing so well what do you think could have happened? As far as I know he is still alive.

 

Maybe an internal infection caused by stress during shipping, that's my best guess

 

So the marbled (aka the opaline/blue/three spot) gourami beat him up? If the gourami was chasing him all day it could easily be from that stress. Have you separated the gourami from the bichir? Good to hear you did a water change but it would be useful to get the parameters. If it is a water quality issue it would be better to know sooner rather than later.

 

I only saw the goramie chase him once and yes it is marbles kissing goramie. I will get waterbparameters tommorow

 

My bichir is on its side and is not doing well, what can I do!?!?? I don’t know what triggered it? Thanks

Oh no! Try putting a divider in?

 

What size are the Oscar and BP?

Further to my contribution in your other thread on this subject, this is normal behaviour for Kissing Gourami. I would not keep one with other larger fish. They are perfectly OK with smaller fish though, unless starving.

A single Kissing Gourami is an excellent colourful, easy, robust pet and centrepiece fish for a larger aquarium. Keep two and the dominant fish will chase the other until it dies. A huge aquarium would be needed for a shoal big enough to even out aggression.

They can also annoy other similar sized fish with their kissing behaviour and if those fish fight back like cichlids do the Gourami will get its mouth chewed off and be badly injured and unable to feed itself.

I wouldn't keep one with Clown Loaches again either:

 

The bichir is still alive, he is in the same position and spot as last night though. He is a trying to bleed and I can’t get a divider right now.