War of the Gouramis

This weekend I added a second gourami to my aquarium. All the literature that I have read describe gourmais as a peaceable fish, suitable for community aquariums. This is not an entirely accurate description.

As it turns out gouramis are reverse racists, they hate there own kind, but get along well with everyone else. The second I put the second gourami in the tank, open warfare erupted between the two gouramis.

The gourami that I already had, began continuous and vicious attacks on the newly arrived gourami. Around the tank they went. One of the the reason that I picked the new gourami (pictured above) was it beautiful flowing red tail. With in a few minutes the other gourami had reduced this beautiful tail to tatters. The fighting is totally one sided.

It has now been a few days and some sort of fishy detente seems to be reached, which mostly seems to consist of the smaller fish hiding when ever the larger comes out from the rocks. So, hopefully this will not wind up being a fight to the death. Never the less I need to reevaluate my future plans for my aquarium. I had planned on putting in about six gouramis, this no longer seems like a good idea.