Sunset Thicklip Gourami Relentlessly Chasing Danios

I have a 36 gallon where the stock was just 3 Apistrogramma baenschi, some snails, and a Sunset Thicklip Gourami.

I've had 3 golden zebra danios (left overs of a school of them from my first 20 gallon over a year ago). They've been in a 75 gallon for about 8 months, but now that I have that setup as a warmer water tank, I decided to bring them over the the 36 which stays at 75F.

As soon as I added them, the Gourami started relentlessly chasing them. I put him in timeout for now. The odd thing, is these guys were paired up in 3 different tanks with no problem. They haven't been together in about 6 months, and I never thought I'd have this issue. I actually couldn't believe how fast he was, I've never seen him move this quick - but he actually got a few nips in on the danios.

Should I expect this behavior to continue? Would the danios be safe, or will he eventually get to them? I moved him into a temporary holding bucket for now to give the danios a chance to fully aclimate, but I obviously can't keep the gourami in the bucket too long. I can move them to a 20 gallon long where my only stock in it are 5 cory cats right now, but I was really hoping this stock would work.

 

He might leave them alone as he gets used to them. Having a bigger school of the danios might also help. If he doesn't them alone, you could either move him or the danios to the 20g.

 

He might leave them alone as he gets used to them. Having a bigger school of the danios might also help. If he doesn't them alone, you could either move him or the danios to the 20g.

I bought 12 danios (6, then 6 more) early on - these are the 3 that survived. I hate to get rid of 3 of my original fish stock, but I wasn't looking to add to the school after the die off I had with them. The LFS I got them from I found out were using them as feeder fish - so I don't think they were taking care of them like they should have been - and I believe they were parasitic when I got them. I didn't know much better at that point. So, it's 3 of them. I just wanted to put them in a more comfortable tank temp wise - they've been in 80F water for about 2 or 3 months now - when I originally moved the 75 gallon stock to the 36 gallon the danios were being a pain to get out of the 75 so they stayed.

As far as the Gourami, I took him out of timeout and he seems to have settled down quite a bit, only chasing them once in a while. I'm surprised he never bothers the Apisto's (they are juveniles at this point).

 

He must either feel the apistos are not a threat (since they occupy a different region of the tank) or the apistos are holding their own. Some fish tend to harass new tank mates for a bit. I'm glad to hear he's settled down.

 

He must either feel the apistos are not a threat (since they occupy a different region of the tank) or the apistos are holding their own. Some fish tend to harass new tank mates for a bit. I'm glad to hear he's settled down.

Yeah, apistos went in a few weeks ago, they tend to keep to themselves. I had an apistogramma borellI in with the Gourami and they were best friends lol, always swimming together. The borrellI ended up dying, so I felt bad for him and one of the better LFS's around here had the Inca's - so I grabbed them