Blue Gourami Going Crazy?

[piratedninja]

today i went and bought 2 1in plecos for my 10gallon tank which currently has 2 male blue gouramis (which i was told would grow to a max of 3in)

so i put in an algae wafer broken into 2 pieces and put them on opposite sides of the tank and an hour later i came back and both pieces were gone and one of the gouramis was fat (maybe bloated?) and i im almost 100% positive it ate the algae wafer pieces because hes the more dominant of the 2 gouramis and eats up all the food i put in in less than a min leaving close to nothing for the other gourami

what can i do about him? hes gotten very bloated(fat) in the past 2 hours and im starting to think that hes gona die by tomorrow morning

please help asap

 

[-germ-]

Not sure what time you're on so this is probably a bit late
I'm new to fish keeping but....
1) Is your fishes scales sticking up? If not then it's unlikely to be bloat.
1.5) Stop panicking
2) Assuming that it is simply over feeding don't put any food in for, i don't know i'd do 24+ hours depending on how he looks. Fish can survive without food for a reasonable amount of time so your other fish should be okay.
3) Once his bellies gone down feed some peas and/or daphinia. I'd go for live daphinia, they get everywhere and as your dominant fish'll have to put some work in it'll give your other gourami a chance to eat. This'll also provide some roughage to get his bowels (or the fish equivalent) moving.
4) Look into different foods for your gourami, you may find something that the dominant one dislikes but the other would be happy to eat. Veg seem to polarise fishy tastes, try Kale, Cucumber, Courgette, Spinach. Use only tiny amounts until you know what works and always blanch them in boiling water beforehand. This applies to the plecos as well, find a suitable veg and with them being shy try feeding them overnight.
5) Re-post this in New to the Hobby to get a more well-informed response.
6) If the scales are sticking up then get it posted in emergencies and start researching dropsy.
7) Start saving your pennies, because your tank is WAY WAY WAY too small. Even better take your fish back to the LFS and start again with something more suitable. Trust me! I have been there myself. Also i think the gourami species you have may get aggressive toward each other in time. Could you post the Pleco species on this thread please?

 

[piratedninja]

no scales are sticking up and the fattness has gone down a lot (8hours later)


ive decided to take the gouramis back to the store and get some smaller fish (maybe some guppies or zebra danios)
i also have 3 red platys in the same 10G tank so i know my tank is extremely overstocked
however i have kept 5 (2-6in) goldfish in a 10G tank b4 and they were very healthy and lived for over a year until my parents started overfeeding them) so im pretty sure i can keep the fish happy even with so many of them in one small tank

i currently dont have a job right now but once i get one i'll definately invest in a nice 20-30gallon tank

and since the gouramis move so fast sometimes it scares the little platys causing them to go hide behind the decorations


as for the plecos, i dont really know the exact species but they are the ones that grow about 2in max
i'll get the names for you when i go to return the gouramis

what reason should i give for returning the gouramis?

 

[-germ-]

That depends on you....
Then again the LFS i've dealt with always take fish back, they're doubling their profit.
a) Tell them your overstocked and in the name of good customer relations and your continuing to spend money there, please could they take them back.
B) Make something up if you think they may prove troublesome.
c) Do what i do and growl at them until they take them back. Never fails.
What LFS is it and where?
Also how old are you? If your young and think they might not let you return them maybe it'd be best to get an adult to accompany you....
The way i see it is they've happily mis-sold you some fish and taken your money, they are then obliged to take the fish back. Ie. Don't take no for an answer.
Also;
I have never heard of a pleco that only gets to 2 inches big, your info is wrong (i'm 99.9% sure). If you have doubts about the species post a description on the pleco section, if i was you i'd return both the plecos and the gourami. As you know you are already overstocked it'd be the responsible thing to do for your fish. Then do some research on the species you like for when you can afford a new, larger tank
Sorry!

 

[piratedninja]

the store name is Petco its like petsmart but they also cary salt water fish unlike petsmart
ive spent over $200 there so i dont think returning them would be much of a problem

i'll replace the $1.79 ea. gourami with some 2.79 ea. guppies maybe i'll get an extra so i can have a 2:1 female to male ratio


i'll post some info on the pleco for you when i come back from the store


EDIT--
just looked at the reciept and the species of the algae eater is called
otocinclus
they are a suckermouth catfish not pleco sorry for the confusion
heres a site that has a ton of info on them
http/www.otocinclus.com/

 

[sylvia]

Before you go and buy anything, you need to keep a few things in mind.

Firstly, otos are fine for your size tank but won't survive long if there's no live algae for them or if the tank's not cycled. So if this tank hasn't been set up for at least a month, it's best to return the otos as well temporarily.

Secondly, returning the gouramies is a good idea. I'm not clear on whether they are dwarf gouramies or three-spots but, either way, the tank's too small for two.

Finally, don't get zebra danios because they are far too active for a small tank and make sure that, if you get guppies, you either get only males/only females or two females per male. The max. number of guppy-sized fish you can fit in a 10 gallon is about 6.

If you want more ideas of what sorts of fish to put in your tank, read this: http/www.fishforums.net/Reccomendations-...on-t116208.html

Make sure your tank is cycled. Read the link in my signature about fishless cycling if you're not certain.

Oh and, petco is terrible. There isn't much you can do about that, of course, but I think it might be worth looking for other fish stores in your area as you'll probably find they have much healthier fish (and generally give better advice).

 

[piratedninja]

im not buying any new fish for another 3-4 weeks so these ottos and plattys have time to get comfortable

i successfully returned the 2 blue gourami (aka 3spot)
they said they dont allow returns on live fish but since they have been out of blue gouramis for over a week now the manager said he'll take them back

surprisingly this petco is probably one of the best ones ive ever been to, extremely clean and they also have new stock every tuesday which is mostly gone by thursday nights
all the fish ive gotten from there have been very healthy and active
the only other fish store i know of is 45miles away and their freshwater fish are very expensive ($3 for 1 sunset fire platy) i paid about $1 for mine at petco)
ive also tried petsmart and absolutely hate that place because their fish are always sick and the water is extremely dirty despite the fact that they have a minimum of 3 people in the aquatics section working at any time of the day

my current tank is cycled, it has cycled for over 3 weeks before i added any fish (its only a 10g tank so i didnt feel the need to go any long and i also used a mature filter matured by my goldfish
and there is plenty of algae growing inside and i also throw in 1/2 of a dime sized algae wafer once every 2 days and remove it if it hasnt been eaten (unfortunately up until now the gourami was eating the algae wafers up but that wont be a problem anymore)

just to add variety to my tank ive decided to get 3 guppies (2female and 1 male) but i wont be getting them for at least 3 more weeks maybe 4