Tropical Fish bullying problems?

I have kept fish in the past so may be able to help. What's the problem? What fish do you have, what size tank and how many fish do you have?
 
I have kept tropical fish for a lot of years and currently have a 240L community tank.

Happy to help if I can. Like Druss says if you can let us know the tank size and what fish you have in there will see if I can help!
 
Hi Druss & Alzi,
Cheers both, I’ll try to explain as best I can…..

230L community tank

Approx 40 fish
Variety of Tetras incl Phantoms, Rose, Cardinal & Rummy Nose
Harlequins
Variety of Gourami including Fire & Ice, the orange & blue ones (forgotten name) and two Kissing Gourami
A few female fighter fish (can’t remember if Chinese or Siamese now)

Now then, onto the problem……
* It’s nothing to do with the fighter fish, it’s one of the two pink Kissing Gourami:
* Had them approx 6 months and at first they got on fine, fraid not anymore tho.
* They used to be the same size, again not anymore. One is very noticeably bigger than the other (who we’ll call Bully)
* At feeding time, they both used to swim to the top or middle for food. Ditto - not anymore the don’t. Now Bully is the first to appear and tucks in, the smaller one (who we’ll call Titch)
remains hidden in an ornament that Bully can’t get into.
* When Titch eventually does venture out for food, he’s immediately chased away and round the tank by Bully. Titch then retreats to hiding in the safe haven of the ornament.

Now obviously I’m concerned that Titch isn’t getting enough food & has regressed in character/personality, spends most of the time hiding away now. Don’t like Titch feeling bullied all the time!
Bully doesn’t bully any other fish btw.

Hope all the above makes sense?
Need any more info in order to help?
What the heck can I do please?
x
 
BlondzDCFC said:
Hi Druss & Alzi,
Cheers both, I’ll try to explain as best I can…..

230L community tank

Approx 40 fish
Variety of Tetras incl Phantoms, Rose, Cardinal & Rummy Nose
Harlequins
Variety of Gourami including Fire & Ice, the orange & blue ones (forgotten name) and two Kissing Gourami
A few female fighter fish (can’t remember if Chinese or Siamese now)

Now then, onto the problem……
* It’s nothing to do with the fighter fish, it’s one of the two pink Kissing Gourami:
* Had them approx 6 months and at first they got on fine, fraid not anymore tho.
* They used to be the same size, again not anymore. One is very noticeably bigger than the other (who we’ll call Bully)
* At feeding time, they both used to swim to the top or middle for food. Ditto - not anymore the don’t. Now Bully is the first to appear and tucks in, the smaller one (who we’ll call Titch)
remains hidden in an ornament that Bully can’t get into.
* When Titch eventually does venture out for food, he’s immediately chased away and round the tank by Bully. Titch then retreats to hiding in the safe haven of the ornament.

Now obviously I’m concerned that Titch isn’t getting enough food & has regressed in character/personality, spends most of the time hiding away now. Don’t like Titch feeling bullied all the time!
Bully doesn’t bully any other fish btw.

Hope all the above makes sense?
Need any more info in order to help?
What the heck can I do please?
x
Click to expand...
Some info on here might help.

www.tropicalfishkeeping.com

Tips on decreasing gourami bullying?

www.tropicalfishkeeping.com www.tropicalfishkeeping.com
 
BlondzDCFC said:
Hi Druss & Alzi,
Cheers both, I’ll try to explain as best I can…..

230L community tank

Approx 40 fish
Variety of Tetras incl Phantoms, Rose, Cardinal & Rummy Nose
Harlequins
Variety of Gourami including Fire & Ice, the orange & blue ones (forgotten name) and two Kissing Gourami
A few female fighter fish (can’t remember if Chinese or Siamese now)

Now then, onto the problem……
* It’s nothing to do with the fighter fish, it’s one of the two pink Kissing Gourami:
* Had them approx 6 months and at first they got on fine, fraid not anymore tho.
* They used to be the same size, again not anymore. One is very noticeably bigger than the other (who we’ll call Bully)
* At feeding time, they both used to swim to the top or middle for food. Ditto - not anymore the don’t. Now Bully is the first to appear and tucks in, the smaller one (who we’ll call Titch)
remains hidden in an ornament that Bully can’t get into.
* When Titch eventually does venture out for food, he’s immediately chased away and round the tank by Bully. Titch then retreats to hiding in the safe haven of the ornament.

Now obviously I’m concerned that Titch isn’t getting enough food & has regressed in character/personality, spends most of the time hiding away now. Don’t like Titch feeling bullied all the time!
Bully doesn’t bully any other fish btw.

Hope all the above makes sense?
Need any more info in order to help?
What the heck can I do please?
x
Click to expand...
Could be you have 2 male Gourami, and now they are older they are getting territorial. how-do-i-sex-a-gourami-1380970_color01-5bbccdbcc9e77c00517b71ab.png
I think Gourami should only he kept as male/female pairing(could be wrong on that but worth looking into as a start).
 
BlondzDCFC said:
Hi Druss & Alzi,
Cheers both, I’ll try to explain as best I can…..

230L community tank

Approx 40 fish
Variety of Tetras incl Phantoms, Rose, Cardinal & Rummy Nose
Harlequins
Variety of Gourami including Fire & Ice, the orange & blue ones (forgotten name) and two Kissing Gourami
A few female fighter fish (can’t remember if Chinese or Siamese now)

Now then, onto the problem……
* It’s nothing to do with the fighter fish, it’s one of the two pink Kissing Gourami:
* Had them approx 6 months and at first they got on fine, fraid not anymore tho.
* They used to be the same size, again not anymore. One is very noticeably bigger than the other (who we’ll call Bully)
* At feeding time, they both used to swim to the top or middle for food. Ditto - not anymore the don’t. Now Bully is the first to appear and tucks in, the smaller one (who we’ll call Titch)
remains hidden in an ornament that Bully can’t get into.
* When Titch eventually does venture out for food, he’s immediately chased away and round the tank by Bully. Titch then retreats to hiding in the safe haven of the ornament.

Now obviously I’m concerned that Titch isn’t getting enough food & has regressed in character/personality, spends most of the time hiding away now. Don’t like Titch feeling bullied all the time!
Bully doesn’t bully any other fish btw.

Hope all the above makes sense?
Need any more info in order to help?
What the heck can I do please?
x
Click to expand...
Gourami's are notorious for this type of behaviour and a pain in the **** at times! Basically your options are to take Bully back to the fish shop or try and add more hiding places / plants and hope for the best. They absolutely love floating plants to mooch about in and hide so if you ask at your LFS they'll be able to advice you. There's no guarantee this will help but it may make the smaller one feel a bit safer and more confident. Try and feed him at the other end of the tank to the big one. There is a risk of him dying from starvation / stress if it continues.

Very nice fish but I stopped keeping Gourami's as they were too much hassle.
 
just be thankful you havent got any of these. (see picture) bought 4 from strikes a number of years ago (pre fire). they were small when i got them (amout 7 inches now) and i was told they were timid. they are in terms of if you put the light on they run and hide but if you put any other fish in there they are toast. have a large silver dollar which just about keeps out of trouble but thats all.20220208_151035[1].jpg
 
ska66 said:
just be thankful you havent got any of these. (see picture) bought 4 from strikes a number of years ago (pre fire). they were small when i got them (amout 7 inches now) and i was told they were timid. they are in terms of if you put the light on they run and hide but if you put any other fish in there they are toast. have a large silver dollar which just about keeps out of trouble but thats all.
Click to expand...
What is that ska66?
Awwh, your poor silver dollar.
x
 
Alzi said:
Gourami's are notorious for this type of behaviour and a pain in the **** at times! Basically your options are to take Bully back to the fish shop or try and add more hiding places / plants and hope for the best. They absolutely love floating plants to mooch about in and hide so if you ask at your LFS they'll be able to advice you. There's no guarantee this will help but it may make the smaller one feel a bit safer and more confident. Try and feed him at the other end of the tank to the big one. There is a risk of him dying from starvation / stress if it continues.

Very nice fish but I stopped keeping Gourami's as they were too much hassle.
Click to expand...
That’s great Alzi, what you’ve said is exactly what I’m gonna do - add more plants to allow Titch hide from Bully when comes up for food and also feed them at oppo ends of the tank. thanks very much.👍🏻

Why is it that when you rely on their advice & ask about potential problems the LFS don’t tell you about them? Annoying really.

Hope you don’t mind me asking, what other hassles did your Gourami give you that led you to stop keeping them?
What fish do you keep now?
x
 
BlondzDCFC said:
That’s great Alzi, what you’ve said is exactly what I’m gonna do - add more plants to allow Titch hide from Bully when comes up for food and also feed them at oppo ends of the tank. thanks very much.👍🏻

Why is it that when you rely on their advice & ask about potential problems the LFS don’t tell you about them? Annoying really.

Hope you don’t mind me asking, what other hassles did your Gourami give you that led you to stop keeping them?
What fish do you keep now?
x
Click to expand...

A male Pearl Gourami killed one of my juvenile bristle noses and running turf wars with loads of different fish including Mollies, Danios etc! I also found that their general health and longevity decreased a bit, but this is going back to the early 2000s so might not be such an issue now.

These days I just mainly keep tetras, harlequins, platys, clown loaches, corys and dwarf chain loaches. Water where I am is quite low PH so have to generally get fish that fit that. I'll need to upgrade my tank soon as a couple of the Clown Loach are getting huge.

Not sure how many fish shops there are near you, but try to find a good one where they actually care about the fish and customer. Avoid Pets at Home etc their advice is nonsense and they don't understand even the basics of cycling a tank. There's some really good fish keeping groups on facebook etc too which are really helpful.
 
ska66 said:
they are called Leporinus
Click to expand...
Jeez wept!
Just Googled and YouTubed them.

See what ya mean now. And yes I am glad I haven’t got any of them!
I think I’ve got problems with one bully gourami, gawd knows what I’d do if I had some of them! Gulp!

Video clips - nasty fookers aren’t they!😱

Some quotes from the above sites:
“Beware the beautiful banded leporinus”
“Leporinus are devil fish”
“b****d of a fish”
☠️
x
 
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