I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that I was being sarcastic from - that was not my intention.
I'm realy sorry you feel that way but, like I said before, whilst most people do know that they have fish that'll need bigger tanks later on, many don't. I think it's far better for some of you 'newbies' to feel frustrated than for fish to be crowded in tiny tanks just because people who could have told you what was wrong were to worried about how you would react.
I should also point out that I did not say you were over-stocked - I figured that, like most people, you'd have upgraded for your clowns if they were large. They do grow very slowly. I simply wanted to warn you (incase you didn't know already) of the fact that they need to be in larger tanks and that they are social (of course, I had no way of knowing that you actualy have 2 seeing as you mentioned only one in your original post).
However, if what you were reffering to was my comment about the killies needing a bigger tank - that's not due to overstocking. That's because both they and the dwarf like spending time in the upper layers of the tank and, in a 20 gallon, that space is quite limmited so they are quite likely to fight over territory despite both species being relatively peaceful fish. While that fighting wouldn't necessarily be particularly violent, it would cause both a good bit of stress. With dwarf gouramies in particular, that can be a huge problem and can lead to serious internal infections and death. The way I see it, your dwarf gourami, seeing as you already have him, is your priority (as is the case with those neons which would get eaten eventualy).
While I appreciate that some people are more upfront about what they mean to say than others, I think you also need to realise that, at least for the most part, people don't just randomly say 'YOU'RE OVERSTOCKED'. I know that, at least in my case, when I tell people there's an issue with their stocking, I don't do it because I get a kick out of making people feel bad or because I don't want them to keep fish - I say it because I love fishkeeping and I'd love for other people to get the same enjoyment out of it - but not in the fish' expense. Hopefuly you'll udnerstand that and forgive me if I did happen to sound particularly harsh before - though I assure you that was not what I was trying to do.
BTW, dwarf gouramies don't grow to 4". They reach a max. of around 2".
, I just have never seen them in my LFS and got excitied. thanks again for your help.
