Bronze Cories & Male Dwarf Gourami

[lockside]

Hello everybody

I have a community tank with 3 bronze cories amongst other fish. Have recently added a male dwarf gourami, he looks great and adds a presence to the tank but he sometimes goes after the cories....

As there are three cories none of them get picked on too much and it doesn't seem to bother them too much - they don't swim off and hide or anything.

Do you think this is ok or is there an inherent problem with mixing the two species??

Thanks for any commnets.

 

[chibi]

I've never had a problem with gouramis and corys. Dwarf Gouramis like to pick on some fish. As long as they aren't injured, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi lockside

I'm glad you're concerned enough about your corys to ask this question. I think you do have reason to be concerned. Male gouramis can be quite aggressive toward corys.

The problem is not just the possibility of visable damage that you should be worried about, it's the constant stress that this fish might subject the corys to. Aggressive tank mates are one of the things that could lead to weakened immune systems, and this could increase the possibility of them getting bacterial infections.

If this harassment continues, and I suspect it will, it might be a good idea to separate them.

 

[lockside]

Chibi & Inchworm,

Thank you for your comments.

Do you think adding more cories to alleviate the stress factor on each one may help? What about adding female dwarf gourami, would this calm the male down possibly?

May have to separate them if it is dangerous for the cories....

 

[Inchworm]

Hi lockside

While you might redirect some of your gourami's aggression away from the corys and toward the female, I would not count on this to stop him from annoying the corys altogether.

In the long run, I don't think adding more corys would help very much. Since they are schooling fish, it's always better to have more of them than fewer, but aggression in their tank is still a bad thing. It's just the nature of male gouramis to defend their territories.

 

[LouiseRat]

our dwarf gouramis hang out with our corys , they all furrage in the sand together we have 10 corys and 3 dwarf gouramis

 

[lockside]

Thank you very much for all of your comments and advice. I will keep a very close eye on this situation.....