Ulmina
Aquarium Advice Regular
Helloooo, long time no see. Sorry i have been a poor community member these past months but I won't bother you with a long story. 
Okay, first issue is I don't know for sure what genders my two Sunset (Honey Sunset?) Gouramis are. I've been assuming the large one is male & smaller female, but today read the females are larger. (Do females chase the males??) I'll just call them "big" and "small" for the sake of this post.
So half the time I'm looking (which is a lot), the big G is chasing the little G, then goes back to its business. I have been assuming it's for mating because it doesn't look exactly like garden-variety aggression, AND my biggest clue has been that it doesn't seem to stress out the tank-mates, not even the corys, whereas I find that 'true' aggression makes tank-mates upset or uncomfortable. I am wondering if what I see today is a stress-reaction illness beginning, or if the small G was made to run into a tank decoration and hurt itself?
The small G just today has a large-ish white area (or wound?) kind of hanging a bit like a 'skin tag' right next to its mouth (a little above mouth toward eye). Looks like a piece of flake stuck to its mouth. It isn't acting sick, but IS doing its best to hide as it goes about its business because it's being pretty continuously chased today. I will attach a picture, downloading now as i write this, assuming I can figure out how.
Have had these Gs since May 31, purchased together at mom-n-pop LFS. Tank is a medium-heavily planted 16g bowfront & tankmates are 2 micro-corys, 2 rainbow furcata (pair?) 3 neon tetras, about 7 or 8 assassin snails, and uninvited other snails which i hand-remove almost daily. There is a mature sponge filter from the corys' & neons' previous tank, plus a Whisper 30i running. June 27, did a 20% WC & I do these approx weekly~ sometimes 10%, sometimes up to 25%, just depends. Temp is approx 73 degrees & nothing but dechlorinated water, a bit of Prime, & a bit of Flourish has been added new to tank for a while, same brands. Last plants were added about 3 weeks ago ~ so basically a very stable environment & water very stable at 0-0.1 ammonia, 0 nitrites, & 0 to <1.0 nitrates. My tap pH is at or above the basic test kit & I forget the hardness but my LFS is a mile away so i figure they have the same water as far as those last 2 parameters go, & i just don't worry about them (until/unless someone explains that I need to, i guess).
Sorry this was so long.
Okay, first issue is I don't know for sure what genders my two Sunset (Honey Sunset?) Gouramis are. I've been assuming the large one is male & smaller female, but today read the females are larger. (Do females chase the males??) I'll just call them "big" and "small" for the sake of this post.
So half the time I'm looking (which is a lot), the big G is chasing the little G, then goes back to its business. I have been assuming it's for mating because it doesn't look exactly like garden-variety aggression, AND my biggest clue has been that it doesn't seem to stress out the tank-mates, not even the corys, whereas I find that 'true' aggression makes tank-mates upset or uncomfortable. I am wondering if what I see today is a stress-reaction illness beginning, or if the small G was made to run into a tank decoration and hurt itself?
The small G just today has a large-ish white area (or wound?) kind of hanging a bit like a 'skin tag' right next to its mouth (a little above mouth toward eye). Looks like a piece of flake stuck to its mouth. It isn't acting sick, but IS doing its best to hide as it goes about its business because it's being pretty continuously chased today. I will attach a picture, downloading now as i write this, assuming I can figure out how.
Have had these Gs since May 31, purchased together at mom-n-pop LFS. Tank is a medium-heavily planted 16g bowfront & tankmates are 2 micro-corys, 2 rainbow furcata (pair?) 3 neon tetras, about 7 or 8 assassin snails, and uninvited other snails which i hand-remove almost daily. There is a mature sponge filter from the corys' & neons' previous tank, plus a Whisper 30i running. June 27, did a 20% WC & I do these approx weekly~ sometimes 10%, sometimes up to 25%, just depends. Temp is approx 73 degrees & nothing but dechlorinated water, a bit of Prime, & a bit of Flourish has been added new to tank for a while, same brands. Last plants were added about 3 weeks ago ~ so basically a very stable environment & water very stable at 0-0.1 ammonia, 0 nitrites, & 0 to <1.0 nitrates. My tap pH is at or above the basic test kit & I forget the hardness but my LFS is a mile away so i figure they have the same water as far as those last 2 parameters go, & i just don't worry about them (until/unless someone explains that I need to, i guess).
Sorry this was so long.
Attaching now ...
