Cunning Plan Protects Injured Fish - failed

[justinhill]

Finally I did something right. The little gourami kept trying unsuccessfully to hide from the bully fish in the base of a particular plant. So I bought a little resin hollow log ornament and put it just by the plant. After a few hours the injured fish figured out it could park itself inside - and the bully gourami can't get at it because it's too big! It kept trying, but the little fish just sat there safely, and now the bully is getting bored of it.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Good short-term plan, but the smaller one will still be stressed, and afraid to come out

 

[Guyb93]

A bully will always bully it’s good that it has a space where it can be free of physical abuse but I imagine it’s like being locked in your home while an angry mob waits outside lol

 

[UnknownFishies]

Finally I did something right. The little gourami kept trying unsuccessfully to hide from the bully fish in the base of a particular plant. So I bought a little resin hollow log ornament and put it just by the plant. After a few hours the injured fish figured out it could park itself inside - and the bully gourami can't get at it because it's too big! It kept trying, but the little fish just sat there safely, and now the bully is getting bored of it.

That’s big brain. But he will still be stressed.

 

[Slaphppy7]

What kind of gouramis are these?

 

[justinhill]

Good short-term plan, but the smaller one will still be stressed, and afraid to come out

It wins me a bit of time while I try to find someone who'll take the big one off my hands.

 

[justinhill]

What kind of gouramis are these?

They're gold gouramis

 

[ThatFishGirl6231]

i had a gourami one time who the bully. i traded him to my cousin. 2 mollies for the bully gourami. i think she may have traded him too, but all that matters is that i don’t have him anymore. ?

 

[Slaphppy7]

They're gold gouramis

Dwarf, or regular size?
Not familiar with golds, but there's lots of color variants out there with the dwarfs...

 

[Essjay]

They're not dwarfs, they are the gold variety of three spots. It was me who identified them from justinhill's photos.

Three spots are among the more aggressive gouramis.


Edited to add a link
See post #4 here

New Tropical Aquarium - Trying to get a grip! - Succeeded...

An acquaintance bought an aquarium kit and found he couldn't cope with it, so would I take it on as a going concern? Never one to refuse free stuff I agreed and went there 12 days ago to transport the thing over to mine. Even knowing absolutely nothing about these things it was obvious the...

www.fishforums.net

 

[justinhill]

Dwarf, or regular size?
Not familiar with golds, but there's lots of color variants out there with the dwarfs...

truthfully? I don't know. But these are not obviously gold in colour and in fact the fish shop wrongly sold them as pearl gouramis, probably because they look pearl in colour.

 

[justinhill]

They're not dwarfs, they are the gold variety of three spots. It was me who identified them from justinhill's photos.

Three spots are among the more aggressive gouramis.


Edited to add a link
See post #4 here

New Tropical Aquarium - Trying to get a grip! - Succeeded...

An acquaintance bought an aquarium kit and found he couldn't cope with it, so would I take it on as a going concern? Never one to refuse free stuff I agreed and went there 12 days ago to transport the thing over to mine. Even knowing absolutely nothing about these things it was obvious the...

www.fishforums.net

Indeed you did. I should have seen your post before I replied to Slaphppy7's. But I'm still learning about the varieties out there and didn't know 'dwarf' was another type...

 

[Slaphppy7]

They're not dwarfs, they are the gold variety of three spots. It was me who identified them from justinhill's photos.

Three spots are among the more aggressive gouramis.


Edited to add a link
See post #4 here

New Tropical Aquarium - Trying to get a grip! - Succeeded...

An acquaintance bought an aquarium kit and found he couldn't cope with it, so would I take it on as a going concern? Never one to refuse free stuff I agreed and went there 12 days ago to transport the thing over to mine. Even knowing absolutely nothing about these things it was obvious the...

www.fishforums.net

Yep, I have a 3 spot myself, blue variety....he's got so many other fish in the tank with him, he doesn't have time to bully, lol

 

[Essjay]

@justinhill There are quite a few gouramis, though some of them are not common in shops. I've had honey gouramis in the past and now have pearl gouramis, which is how I knew the ones in your photos were not pearls.

The most common are:
honeys - three colour variations
dwarfs - three colour variations
pearls - only one colour but there are now deformed balloon pearls
three spots - around half a dozen different colour variations

plus a few more less common in shops.

 

[justinhill]

The small gourami died a few minutes ago. The hiding log intervention was a good one and I should have thought of it sooner but inevitably the small one wasn't going to stay inside permanently; by this morning, every time the big fish wandered off the small one was venturing out and trying to have a swim around and eat something. And then of course it had the sh*t kicked out of it and it went back in the log... and the cycle repeated all morning. About an hour ago it exhibited the classic loss of buoyancy control thing and after struggling for a while it gave up.

I'm really cross with myself. This outcome wasn't inevitable and I don't care if the fish only cost a fiver. It was an animal, and it died on my watch. And what's more, the bully won and is swimming smugly around in my tank.