# Bully Gourami



## tashelby (May 10, 2012)

I have a problem. Well, a problem fish, really - roughly 3.5" long male opaline gourami. I love this fish. Seriously, he's gorgeous. BUT. He doesn't play well with others... ANY others. He's caused the deaths of several other fish simply by harassing them to the point where they can't even get any food. Now.

I made the decision to simply change from community fish to semi-aggressive. Yesterday, I added 6 various tiger barbs and an albino rainbow shark to my tank (all tiny), under the assurance from the pet store's aquarium girl that the gourami wouldn't be a danger to them. I've only caught a glimpse of 1 of the barbs, as bully boy chases them relentlessly if they poke their fins out of hiding. 

I don't want to get rid of this fish, whether by re-homing or death-by-toilet, but I can't let him kill any more fish. If I remove him to another tank (which I'll have to purchase and set up) for a while, and then put him back in the main tank once these smaller fish beef up a bit, will that help? Or is it more likely, once a problem fish, always a problem fish?


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## robjh22 (Jul 19, 2010)

Get rid of him. He won't change. I lost 4 fish to one bully gourami (also beautiful) and I'm not doing it again. Your fish store may take him back.

I wouldn't kill him either, but put him in a tank by himself if you have to.


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## chenowethpm (Jan 8, 2014)

IME gouramis can be notorious bullies.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

1^ with Matt that gouramis are tough.You should have gotten fish closer to his/her size.Possibly even other gouramis?They tend to be conspecific and will definately favor bothering their own more than other species.
If the TB were bigger I would think they would rule,and really don't think the gourami can intimidate them that much,but I'm not looking at your tank(TB are tough tough tough{more than gouramis}),but if they are smaller then maybe the gourami scares them.
You could try just moving your decorations around to make the tank seem "new" to all,this is a common trick for aggressive cichlid keepers.


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## tashelby (May 10, 2012)

Thanks everyone! 

I would have preferred larger barbs (I always have a hard time with babies), but all they had were bitty ones (about 3/4").  

So. I'll go about setting up a smaller tank for the bully. Do gouramis generally fare well swimming solo?


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