Fish
4
If there is a more delightful, intelligent and, even, compassionate fish than a Red Capped Oranda, I haven't found one. But, they are high maintenance and extreme polluters. We lost our last pair, Laurel and Hardy, while transporting them in the RV, which stirred up too much gunk and this did them in. Our search for some new fish led us to a smaller fish that would be easier to take care of and ended up with an elegant pair of Neon Gouramis. They have a pair of functional feelers that they use like arms. Cool fish.
Right off the bat, one established itself as the dominant fish and kept the other fish confined to a small portion of the tank. When they fed, he was free to roam while the bully was busy eating, but when dinner was over, it was forced back to its side of the tank. Anyone who has ever read "On Aggression" by Konrad Lorenz understands that there is no such thing as a "bad" or "good" fish, in human terms...there's just variations of aggressiveness.
Well, over time, the bully grew larger than the less aggressive Gourami. One day, we noticed that little guy wasn't looking right; its tail fin was clamped shut, one eye was larger than the other and there were some new patches on his head. So, after some research, we set up a hospital tank next to the aquarium, moved him into it and determined that he had parasites. We started the routine with Epsom Salt, which did nothing. We moved on to antibiotics. Nada. We also realized that the other Gourami was just fine, as was the Pleco (algae eater). The little guy was still eating and moving around and whatever he had wasn't affecting the other fish, so we put him back into the aquarium while we searched for other answers, which we found the next day.
When we walked into the house, it was impossible to miss: The Big Guy was committing a murderous assault on the Little Guy. His feelers were bitten off, most of his tail fin was gone and the Big Guy was targeting his gills. I never even considered that a Gourami had Piranha genes. It actually was frightening and brutal. Back in the second tank, it took four days for the Little Guy to shut down, completely. He received a proper burial.
We decided to go out to look for a replacement, with some reservations, but ended up buying a Pink Kissing Gourami. He was slightly larger than the Big Guy and equally beautiful. The murderer immediately attacked the new guy. But New Guy didn't back down. The are called "kissing" Gouramis because they can open their mouths very wide, in what looks like a kiss. Well, the murderer found himself staring right down the pipes of the new and slightly bigger fish and slammed on the brakes. But, he's aggressive and didn't relent. Kissing Gouramis, as it turns out, have a reputation of being extremely ornery, so after separating them several times with a glass partition, which didn't abate the aggression (they both rammed the glass trying to get at each other), we removed the glass and let them have at it, hoping that they would realize that they were both in a lose/lose situation. Seems that the new guy just wants to be left alone, but the tension was high. The murderer orchestrated a series of attacks...each of which was met by a physically superior fish and when the Kisser had enough, he wailed on the killer, slamming him against the glass and onto the gravel. Ever stick your finger into a tank and touched a fish? The torque is incredible. For the killer, it was credible enough and he hasn't attacked since. Tension is still high and they are both keeping a sharp edge, but the fighting seems to have stopped.
Please don't call Child Protective Services on us, okay?
The Killer:
