Community tank.

Question
Hello, I have a 40cm tank, I think it holds about 25L, I currently have in it 2 Kribensis Cichlid, 3 Electric Blue Tetras, a Bristlenose Catfish and 2 mollies. I don't know if that is too much, the people at the aquarium store said it was fine. Anyways I just wanted to ask a couple of questions. The first is, my mollies keep fighting, I have a white and black one. The white one is the bigger of the two, but the black one keeps attacking it for no reason. The black one does nothing, it usually just stays hovering in one spot and then attacks the white one whenever it gets close, the white actually swims around the tank. I've had the take for about a month and its been going on for about 2 weeks. Is there anything I can do to stop it, should I be worried about the black one eventually killing the white one? It only happens when the white one gets near the black one, and the black one usually gets the white one once and misses the other attempts, and then the white one swims away for a few minutes and it happens again.
The other question is, I was wondering if my tank is too crowded to fit a kissing Gourami and if it will attack the other fish. I heard that it can be quite aggressive, we've had one in the past in a bigger tank and it was fine.

That's about it. Sorry for such a long email. Thankyou

John

Answer
Dear John,
Your aquarium is kind of on the small size, but as long as you insure to keep up with frequent water changes, and your fish are content--you are likely fine.

I'll start with the molly fighting problem. Do you know if you have two males or a pair? Male mollies, like all livebearers have a pointed bottom fin and the females is simply fan shaped. If you indeed have a pair, the male is not trying to fight the female, but breed with her. The chasing and bickering is all part of courtship and mating.
But with only a pair, males naturally get overly excited and may stress the female by chasing her all the time. A good solution to this is to add more females so you have at the minimum 1 male to two females. But your aquarium is in fact on the small side and adding more fish could indeed overload your aquarium. You could replace the male if you have one with just another female to help with matters. And this might be a better solution. Usually males won't kill females but they can stress her and this is no way for her to live. So I would try not to let it continue.

I'm sorry to say your aquarium is probably too small to accomodate a kissing gourami. These are very interesting and large gouramis that would really do best at the very minimum of an aquarium of 29gals (109litres) or larger as they generally mature at about 6 inches. About the aggression issues, this just depends upon the individual fish in my experience. Most of them are relatively peaceful and do not harm other tankmates that have similar temperaments as they do. Kissing gouramis may indeed fight each-other, especially if kept in a small aquarium. But otherwise they are generally peaceful and quiet tank inhabitants but like I said it can all depend upon the individual fish and the type of enviroment he lives in.

Well, I really hope this helps answer your questions as you would have liked!

Only my very best wishes and Happy fishkeeping!
Karen~