Re-creating Australia in a Fish Tank...

Written on 4:45 p.m. by My gratitude journal

6 months ago, I gave up trying to find a kind of fish that would survive my little terrorist, a red zebra cichlid female (as seen on picture to the left). For the sake of this story, I'll call her Bonnie.

So Bonnie had proved herself to be a very difficult tank mate for a few 8 other cichlids who were killed and eaten by her, 1 beta, 2 tiger oscars (american cychlids), as well as ate over a dozen snails. What else could I try? I decided that my friend Charles would receive a very nice red zebra cichlid female as a present for his very own cichlid fish tank. He had told me how aggressive his cichlids were and, to be honest, his cichlids were approx. 3 times the size of Bonnie.

So Bonnie spent 10 hours in a plastic bag on a bus with me from Abitibi, to move into what would become her new home.

Last month, I had news that Bonnie's size had trippled and that she was now attacking the leading male cichlid of her new tank and he was now paralysed from fear behind the jet of water coming out of the filter. Charles decided it was time to isolate Bonnie in a smaller fish tank where he only had a litlle guppy. Three hours later, there were no traces of a guppy in that tank and Bonnie was alone again.

In the meanwhile, I was on vacation in Australia and Charles was taking care of my fish. In this tank, I had 4 gouramis (1 pearl, 1 gold, 1 red and 1 blue), 1 shark, 5 neons tetras, 3 angels, a beta and a pleco. On my return, 2 gouramis(gold and red), the shark and the beta were missing. I bought a small eal and two yellow suckers to replace them. Since then, I saw my pearl gourami (as the picture to the right) attack the blue gourami to death, as well as the eel and one of the 2 yellow suckers... For the sake of this story, I'll call my pearl gourami Clyde.

So now that Bonnie had been controlled and isolated in this small fish tank with no tankmates to eat and that Clyde was terrorising my tank, I thought maybe these two belong together... One thing though: pearl gouramis are NOT supposed to be aggressive and cichlids are usually supposed to share a tank only with their fellow cichlids... So it is expected that Bonnie will attack and eat Clyde. Charles and I agreed that after so many killings, both of these fish proved to not be able to share their space with others and if one of them gets killed in the process, it will be 'death penalty' for serial murder.

Three possible scenarios now:

1. Bonnie eats Clyde (10 against 1)
2. Bonnie and Clyde bare with each other and tame themselves down (yeah RIGHT!)
3. Clyde kills Bonnie (1 against 10)

Only time will tell what these two terrorists will turn themselves into, now that they've been isolated in their smaller 'Australia' tank...

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