Tropical Fish Forums

[oscar1658]

hello, seeing as I'm new to tropical fish ill give this a go!
I currently have 2 black skirt tetra, two algae eaters and 2 three spotted gourami's in a 54 litre tank, 25% water change every week, treat the water for any chorine and use 'safe water' treatment for them and we feed them on tropical fish flakes, sometimes cucumber and bloodworms too as treats. we're having the problems with the two gourami's with bullying, iv deffinatly identified the bully is a male and the bullied one is a female, she results into hiding away all the time, her 'feelers' underside of her belly one has been half way taken off and she looks pale and her spots are fading towards the male thats bright, she was the same colour as him when we first got her (we'v had them a month or so) but the male hasn't left her alone since! theyre from the same tank at the store too. When she comes out for food he goes and chases her and what seems to nip at her? I'm not sure but I know shes not looking good. Also recently her back fin has been shredded, not sure if its the male again or just the filter thats done this but shes looking very ill, theyre both about 2 inches - male being slightly bigger, I'm open to ideas and correcting any faults I couldve made that you can suggest, I'm very sorry if my descriptions are bad too, again I'm new to this fish buisness so is there any way to help the female at all? thanks x

[diademhill]

Best way to help the female is get a larger tank or return the male to the store.

You will need a larger tank anyway as 3 spot gouramis grow too large for a 54L tank.

What are the algae eaters?

These too are probably not suitable for you tanl and the nipping could be from the tetras which are often nippy id kept in too small a group.

Where did you buy your fish? Few places will sell tetras jn pairs unless you say you are adding them to an existing group. (There is even legislation in the UK that can be used to get them returned for a refund)

[oscar1658]

the store said this was fine, I'm guessing just the make a sale as I told them what others I had and what tank and they said it was okay, what tank is suitable for them? and algae eaters are the plecos http://www.schillmania.com/photos/35mm/image/collection/at_home/pleco.jpg
so its a good idea to get afew more tetras too? what tank is good to house the good number of them all?

[diademhill]

The store was just after the sale.
Your plecos potentially grow as long as the tank.
For the gouramis about 1 180 litre tank and for one pleco you need 300 litre or larger
(two plecos will often fight,)

[oscar1658]

update on the tank - well all is good so it seems, seeing as they are babies at the moment the male has gone to a friend of mine in a much larger tank which I'm glad of, he was stressing the rest of them out a lot and luckyly enough he seems to have settled in...we'll keep an eye on him just in case! as for the female she has gone brighter and her fins are growing back with the bright glowing spots on the bottom fin which I am very pleased for her, I keep giving her some cucumber which she enjoys (she wasnt allowed to have any before due to the male) shes very peaceful and the tetras don't seem to bother her even though theres only two, plan of action a bigger tank with afew more black skirt tetras in there to make sure everyone runs smoothly, very pleased for the female though eh?