Single Blue Gourami

I was given a 56 gall tank with fish. I have 1 blue gourami that seems to hide all day. It is bullied occasionally by a small spotted silver dollar. I was wondering if I got him a female blue or two he would be more comfortable in the tank or would this possibly upset the community. He isn't aggressive at all right now with any of the other fish.

 

I was given a 56 gall tank with fish. I have 1 blue gourami that seems to hide all day. It is bullied occasionally by a small spotted silver dollar. I was wondering if I got him a female blue or two he would be more comfortable in the tank or would this possibly upset the community. He isn't aggressive at all right now with any of the other fish.

Your blue gourami is a three-spot. Three-spots are known for potential aggression issues towards conspecifics, though some are totally peaceful. So you run the risk of creating more problems, though it could work in making your fish feel less shy/unsafe. Do you have another tank that your gourami could possibly migrate to? Silver Dollars aren't exactly known as peaceful fish after all, I don't know if they make good tank mates for gourami that tend to set off potential aggression in other fish.

 

Silver dollars need to be kept in a school. In small numbers, they’ll pick on other fish and bite their fins. A silver dollar killed my angelfish and almost killed my pearl gourami a few months ago. He was a rescue, and I made the mistake of keeping him too long. They also really need a 4 foot long tank to feel happy in. I wouldn’t recommend anything smaller, as it’ll stress them.

 

I was given a 56 gall tank with fish. I have 1 blue gourami that seems to hide all day. It is bullied occasionally by a small spotted silver dollar. I was wondering if I got him a female blue or two he would be more comfortable in the tank or would this possibly upset the community. He isn't aggressive at all right now with any of the other fish.

I don't have any experience with silver dollars, so I'm interested in seeing what others say about it, but you might want to consider getting more silver dollars instead of gouramis. Some fish are less aggressive to other fish if they're in groups of their own kind.

 

Thank you for your fast reply. Your information helped me decide. I have 1 gourami, 2 spotted silver dollars, 1 hatchet, 5 red eye tetra, 2 rainbow sharks, 2 neon tetra, 1 pleco. Any suggestions for additions? Thanks again.

 

Thank you for your fast reply. Your information helped me decide. I have 1 gourami, 2 spotted silver dollars, 1 hatchet, 5 red eye tetra, 2 rainbow sharks, 2 neon tetra, 1 pleco. Any suggestions for additions? Thanks again.

At least 10 more neons. They make a much bigger impact in large groups. What kind of pleco do you have? Some of them get large.

 

Thank you for your fast reply. Your information helped me decide. I have 1 gourami, 2 spotted silver dollars, 1 hatchet, 5 red eye tetra, 2 rainbow sharks, 2 neon tetra, 1 pleco. Any suggestions for additions? Thanks again.

3 more silver dollars. If your tank isn’t 4 feet, I’d recommend just rehoming the 2 you have.

 

Thank you for your fast reply. Your information helped me decide. I have 1 gourami, 2 spotted silver dollars, 1 hatchet, 5 red eye tetra, 2 rainbow sharks, 2 neon tetra, 1 pleco. Any suggestions for additions? Thanks again.

You have quite a number of fish that do very poorly in small numbers. They get stressed and either are prone to illness (hatchet, tetras) or aggression (silver dollars). You need at least 6 each of the hatchets, both tetra species and the dollars, though even larger groups would be even better. Before considering getting anything else, up these groups.

Your tank inhabitants are poorly matched, however. The Dollars and particularly the Rainbow Sharks are likely to terrorise the small neons and possibly the hatchets. Rainbow Shark are known to be aggressive to others of their kind and keeping two together may not be wise.

 

Wow, thanks for the info, seems I inherited a fight club. The sharks stay in caves on each side of the aquarium. If one comes into the others territory they chase back to respective caves. I have a bow front aquarium and I don't think I have the space for more silver dollars but I will add hatchets and tetras. The pleco seems to be a 4" spotted. Thanks!

 

Wow, thanks for the info, seems I inherited a fight club. The sharks stay in caves on each side of the aquarium. If one comes into the others territory they chase back to respective caves. I have a bow front aquarium and I don't think I have the space for more silver dollars but I will add hatchets and tetras. The pleco seems to be a 4" spotted. Thanks!

Can you take a picture of the pleco? Especially from the top or side, if you can manage, so that we can see it see its dorsal and the top of its face and mouth.

 

Sorry it took so long, hard to get a pic of the pleco.

 

Sorry it took so long, hard to get a pic of the pleco.

That looks like a species that gets HUGE. I am doubtful if that can stay in the tank you have, you will probably have to upgrade the tank or rehome it at some point to prevent it from getting stunted..

 

A simple way to find out if it’s a common pleco is if the OP paid less than $4 for it. Only the common is $4 or less here in the great United States of The Americas.

Did you pay $4 or less for the pleco?

 

A simple way to find out if it’s a common pleco is if the OP paid less than $4 for it. Only the common is $4 or less here in the great United States of The Americas.

Did you pay $4 or less for the pleco?

(Though even if it isn't a common it may be a giraffe or something similar. That dorsal is definitely the type and build that the humongous plecos have, not the smaller species).

 

I inherited all the fish including the pleco. My niece did say that at one time there was another pleco that was huge. It died before I received the call to get the aquarium. They had given the tank to a family friend of my late bother-in-law and they didn't take care of it. I've been very lucky no fish has died in the 6 weeks I've had it. Thanks for all the information and help.