Flame Gourami Attacking New Platinum Angel

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Tank size: 30L (approx 7.92Gallons)
pH: 7.1
ammonia: 0.0
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 24 degrees Celcius (75.2 F)

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): The flame gourami has been harassing the platinum angel constantly. I caught him with the platinum angels eye in his mouth. We left them together for 12 hours until platinum angel looked so stressed we couldn't watch it any more and put the flame gourami into a bag. We tried moving the environment around first so they would all have to figure out their territories again, but it seemed too late. Platinum angel not looking too good now.


What should we do? How long can we leave the flame in the bag for and are we just irritating it more? Is there anything we can do for the platinum angel (we don't have a hospital tank)?

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 10% of tank water (about 3L's) every 2 weeks

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Activated Carbon, sponge and ceramic noodles

Tank inhabitants: 6 x neon tetras, 2 x flying foxes, 1 x kuhili loach, 4 x black phantoms, 1 x flame gourami (male), 1 x small platinum angel, 1 x small ? tiger angel and a black ghost knife fish.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 1 x piece of drift wood with plant growing on it (took a rock out to fit it in) and the 2 x angels, black ghost knife and the 2 x flying foxes.

Exposure to chemicals:

You have all of those fish in a 8 gallon tank!?!?

Danno said:

You have all of those fish in a 8 gallon tank!?!?

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They are all really little one's of their species and the aquarium shop said they would be fine in there together and I told them about the tank size and specifically asked if I was over stocking it...... is that our problem?? Should we take some out? And if so, which one's? The aggressive gourami or the being bullied angel?

The only fish in your tank that can stay are the neons. The other fish will grow to be WAY to big for your tank. I would bring them back to the fish store to get credit.

Even if they look good now, they'll eventually get way too big. You should also be doing bi weekly 50% water changes with your stocking, as 10% every two weeks is really bad even for average stocking and, did you cycle and if so how did you do it?

Also, they're probably fighting for territory since there isn't enough for both of them in that tank.

The LFS strikes again..............

On the other hand you could always buy a big tank

Danno said:

On the other hand you could always buy a big tank

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We would love to buy a bigger tank, but no space!! Anyway, we've taken the angel out and put the flame back in to see how they go. I guess we'll keep removing fish until the fighting stops and take them back to the store! The fish store has told us when they get too big we can bring them back and swap them over (or maybe we'll have a bigger tank before that happens!!!!)

As for cycling of the tank, I let it run for 2 weeks with plants, fed the tank fish food (with no fish) to create my ammonia, registered a level and waited for it to come down before I added the fish. It happened pretty quickly because it is a small tank. Lots of plants to take up the ammonia too. I only feed once a day, to avoid excess food and scraps in the tank. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you both for your help so far.

Just a side note:

When Knife Fish get large they like to eat fish that are smaller then them.
Angle fish in the wild eat neons for food.

u have way 2 many fish in your tank ! i don't care what size they are. i wouldn't listen to anything your LFS is telling you . stick to this forum and you will learn alote. good luck

vinylman said:

The LFS strikes again..............

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Couldn't have said it better myself. You will need a tank at least 4 times the size of the one you currently have to keep all those fish.

Tolak said:

vinylman said:

The LFS strikes again..............

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Couldn't have said it better myself. You will need a tank at least 4 times the size of the one you currently have to keep all those fish.

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OK, we took back the platinum angel and released the gourami. Moved the things round in the tank a bit, did a water change and they all seem to be swimming peacefully together (even during feeding!). I guess when they get bigger and when/if they get more aggressive we'll take more fish out so they're happier again.

I appreciate everyone's input very much. Cheers for all the help!

I've attached a picture of our tank for you all to have a look at.

i personally don't even think the tank is big enough for the neons, let alone the other fish, if i was you i would take them all back, have a look what other fish you like there then come back and research them to see if they are ok in that sized tank