aggressive honey gourami..

[ram_g0p]

I bought 2 sunset honey gouramis over the weeknd and they are in a 5-gal QT now. I suspect they are both are males, but difficult to tell as they are still fairly young. (I'd like a pair, though). One of them is chasing the the other around most of the time. I know it could be new environment and small space..
My questions: how to deal with this bully?
My main tank is 25 gal moderately planted with rasboras (7). would they be OK? If not what can I do?
Also, I'd a like small school of tetras (cardinals/neons) added later. Will they be OK? Assuming bullying stops, will it resurface later with new additions? Thanks.

 

[tamtam]

Odds are they are both males. Female gourami are often hard to come across, they lack the color males do so are often unwanted.

The aggression you are seeing is mostly likely because they are in such a small space. Whether or not that stops when they get into the larger tank is hard to say. Giving them a lot of hiding spaces and making area that they can both claim as their own will help. Keeping males together can be a challenge and sometimes it works and some times it doesn't.

I currently have 1 in my 20 gallon community, he's with neons, rasboras and platies and does just great. Honestly he's the most timid fish in my tank. He spends a lot of time hanging out with the platies actually.

 

[ram_g0p]

Thanks for the quick response. I did my research before buying these for compatibility etc. I've read these are very peaceful among small gouramis. Now I see this aggression, I am a bit concerned about the overall peace of my community tank....

 

[bettaowner]

There are two Gouramis called the honey gourami. Colis lalia or colisa chuna. Colisa lalia is the more aggressive species.

 

[ram_g0p]

These are Colisa chuna. They are true honey gouramis ans the sunset orange is a color morph.

 

[ram_g0p]

Just to update the situation, I introduced the timid one in to the main tank about after a week in QT. May be not long enough, but I didn't want the poor guy too stressed and that kind of defeats the purpose of QT! He is happy in the 25 gal tank with many plants. Then after about 3 days, I put the bully in. I always switched the lights of in the room (and the tank) when I introduce new fish and also put a large towel over the tank. Initially, the timid fish approached the erstwhile bully and the bully swam away! I was worried about the tables being turned! After about 5 minutes I took a peak in the tank, the two were doing that "dance" - bodies side to side! As I was wondering, if they were a pair, they swam away! Looks like they both are males and I 've read some where, even males do the "dance" to establish dominance. So last couple of days they are both swimming happily sometimes near each other and other times on either end of the tank. Looks like all's well