I stocked my 30 gallon tank with 6 peppered cories, 4 dwarf gouramis (2 blue, 2 orangish), and an angelfish. All the fish are still quite small. Before I purchased, I did some online research, and talked to the guy at the fish store. It appeared that this group of fish should get along fairly well. The tank is moderately "planted" (with plastic plants), and has a large rock cave for hiding space. The cories and angelfish are doing fine, but I'm having major aggression issues with the gouramis. The two blues have become very aggressive toward the orange ones, leaving one of them dead and the other with missing/damaged feelers. The damaged one is hiding at the bottom of the tank in the plants. Today, I noticed the angelfish was staying near the bottom of the tank as well, but I've been watching and haven't seen the blues bullying him. I caught both blue gouramis, and temporarily separated them, which almost instantly caused the angelfish and the orange gourami to leave the bottom of the tank and swim freely. Unfortunately, I don't have a place where I can separate the two blues permanently, so I had to put them back in the tank.

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After asking questions, I've decided that it's not safe for any of my current or future fish (I will be moving them to a larger aquarium and adding more fish soon) to keep the two blue gouramis given their aggressiveness toward my other fish. Tomorrow, I'm planning to return the two blues along with the deceased orange for a refund/replacement (I've only had them about a week).

My questions are, it doesn't appear that the living orange is aggressive toward any of the fish. Is it wise to keep him, or should I return him too? Will his missing feelers regrow, or cause long term problems/death?

What kind of suggestions do you have for replacing the blue gouramis with? I don't want another fish who will attack and kill my current fish. Will livebearing fish end up overpopulating my tank with offspring? Are they a bad choice? Tetras? Mollies? Platies? What about Rasboras? Please remember I do have an angelfish (who thus far has not shown any aggression, but is small, about dime sized) and don't want his fins chewed up, nor do I want something he can later turn into a snack? Please help!

i sugest you do not get any more gouramis. if you have all males they will be mean to eachother. and the feallers will grow back. you cn keep you orang one just try to get a female so he wont get mean in th efuture of if it is a female then you wont have to worrie at all. other then that you tank sounds good. did it go threw the nitrogen cycle? you have to set a tank up almost a month some times longer before getting fish.

ok with some thign different i would go with some more angel fish or a couple balla shark or even soem red or rainbow sharks.

Yes... what you're seeing is natural because Gourami's and Angel fish (who are part of the cichlid family) do not mix well.

Return all of the gourami's because Gourami's and angelfish don't mix well either. I would get some schooling fish like tetra's (Not neon's as they are natural food items for angels) that grow no bigger than 2 inches and add 6 of them. HOWEVER, I would not do this until you've upgrades as adding 6 more fish would overstock you.

I would not do livebearers unless you get only one gender as they breed like crazy.

Also consider what strata (or swimming level) your fish are. The corries remain in the bottom strata while angels occupy the middle and top. To get an aesthetically pleasing tank you'll want fish in all area's of the tank. Your angel fish is also your centerpiece fish it will grow the largest and is a good centerpiece fish. I find that using one centerpiece fish and 1-2 other species of fish works well because the tank doesn't seem so chaotic or too colorful. FOr your tank I would suggest getting (if your angel is black and white like I imagine) some red schooling fish like Serpae tetra's. It will provide contrast but stay uniform.