gourami agression

[wxboilermaker]

I just got the first two fish for my 40. Bought a pair of Gold gourami's. One of them is larger (more mature) then the other. When I picked them out, i thought i had picked a male and a female, but when I got them home I discovered I had actually recieved 2 males. They've been in the tank for 24 hours now and have just started to come out of hiding. I'm noticing the larger one is picking on the smaller one and there is a very small amount of fin damage. I'm contemplating bringing the larger one back and getting a female.

Is this agression something I chould really be worried about. Are they just assesing terretory? The larger one is absolutly beautiful, but I am going to be adding more fish (cherry barbs, cardnal tetras and harliquin raspboras) and I don't want them to be bullied by this one fish.

So will the larger fish settle down, or do I need to plan a return trip to the LFS?

Another unrelated question....my water was very clear up to adding the fish. After putting them in, there now is stuff floating around. Looks like a film that has fallen off something. Like that crud that comes off the bottom of your pan after coooking eggs. Any idea what it could be?

 

[grimlock3000]

Gouramis are typically best off solo, or in larger tanks with plenty of plants if you do multiples. You will find almost no female Gouramis in any pet stores (because they are usually ugly). I would give it another couple of days to see if they stake out their own territories. Try moving plants around and putting more in the tank to help. If nothing gets better, you might as well return the small one

No idea what the eggs in the tank are

 

[Essayons89]

I disagree about the lack of female gourami in pet stores because they are "ugly". While female dwarf gourami are drab in color, the larger Trichogaster species (blues, golds etc,) don't have much if any color difference between the males and females. The major differences are in the dorsal fins. The dorsal of the males flows into a point while the dorsal of the females is smaller and rounded. Females of these species are plentiful in the hobby, it's the dwarf females which can be hard to come by.

Male gourami are territorial and will fight with each other. Males are best kept alone or with multiple females.

Bryan

 

[TankGirl]

In a 40 it will likely be difficult to keep two males - either keep the one male alone or find multiple females. Gouramis are tricky, no doubt about it!

 

[krap101]

ive only seen only female dwarf and i bought it . i went to walmart with m dad a long time ago and saw this dwarf gourami. it was a silverish. it was cooler than the males imo. i came on here and had a heck of a time trying to find out which gourami it was haha.someone said a female dwarf gourami and i knew that was right. . ive only seen only live in my life :/

 

[Fishalicious]

I disagree about the lack of female gourami in pet stores because they are "ugly". While female dwarf gourami are drab in color, the larger Trichogaster species (blues, golds etc,) don't have much if any color difference between the males and females. The major differences are in the dorsal fins. The dorsal of the males flows into a point while the dorsal of the females is smaller and rounded. Females of these species are plentiful in the hobby, it's the dwarf females which can be hard to come by.

Male gourami are territorial and will fight with each other. Males are best kept alone or with multiple females.

Bryan

Agreed.

BTW, that "filmy stuff" that you're seeing in your water could be mucus coming from their nostrils. I'm not sure exactly why it happens but it happened to me with my gold gourami.

How are your water conditions?
Any ammonia?

This could be causing it.
If you notice any "fishy" activity (like rapid breathing, weird swimming, spiraling) you may want to bring it back to the LFS. These fish are very sensitive to water conditions (especially ammonia) and you don't want to risk losing one.

Does it look like (excuse me) Stringy Snot?

-DAN

 

[wxboilermaker]

It kind of looks like stringy snot...but more of a solid sheet. Like the skin that peels off of you after a sunburn. I'm fairly certain the water is fine. I tested it right before getting the fish and it showed perfectly normal. The only issue might be chloramine, as I allowed the tank to vent off the chlorine and hadn't added a conditioner, but if there was chloramine in it, it wouldn't have cycled. The smaller fish has plenty of room to hide. The bottom of the tank is pretty dense and has some areas too small for the larger fish to reach the smaller one. The prob is the smaller fish is having problems getting to the surface for air without being attacked. This morning I took a look and the smaller fish definatly had some fin damage, so the larger one is definatly going back. Now...he's being territorial to the other gourami. Will this smaller one start doing the same to other fish I put in the tank. especially the ones i have listed? I'm still open to other fish besides those I've chosen....except for the cherry barbs and cory cats. They are in my 10 gal awaiting transfer.

 

[Fishalicious]

After returning at least one of them, you should be fine. Sounds to me there definitely was a chance that they were both male or the larger one just had some screws loose. I'd return the larger one and continue with what you were going to put in. Every fish that you listed should be just fine in there with the gold gourami.

HTH and good luck!
-Dan

 

[wxboilermaker]

well I returned the large male and picked up a female the same size as the current male. She and another loach are sitting in my aclimation tank as we speak. Hopefully things will work out this time.

 

[wxboilermaker]

well...things didn't go that well. After introducing the new gourami the other one immediatly took interest. At first he just followed her around. Looked like what dogs do when they first meet. So after about 5 min of that, he started nipping anc chasing her. The problem now was that both fish were the same size, so there was no shelter for the female. So after 30 min I had to seperate them. So I brought the male back to the lfs. The owner was quite puzzled as to what the problem was, but said I wasn't the first to bring back one of the gouramis from that tank for agression issues. Can certain fish or bloodlines of fish be more agressive then others? Regardless, I decided to stick with one and not push the issue further. I kept the female as she wasn't showing agression toward the loach in the tank at all and she is actaully prettier then the male. So far she seems to be happy.

Do the female's usually get the same size as the males. She's going to be my one large fish in the tank. The rest are going to be on the order of 2" or so, so I'm kind of hoping she gets to be the size of the first male I had (just without the temper)

 

[pkremer]

I purchased a blue gourami for my 38 gallon a few months ago. You can see what all is in my tank in my signature. Initially, he was VERY agressive to my swordtails and left all the other fish alone. For a few days, I almost considered taking him back out, but since he wasn't actually hurting the swords, decided to wait and see.

I think the intial agressiveness may have been him claiming a territory or just establishing dominance of the tank. Now, he doesn't really bother anybody. He still chases the swordtails a bit after feeding time, but I think that is more related to him searching for leftovers and doesn't want them taking anything that he thinks is his. About 15 minutes after feeding, they can swim right by his nose again until feeding time the next day.

It may vary from species to species, but I was told that if you are going to have blue gouramis, you want 1 or 3+, never ever 2. I am not sure why this is, but if you have 2, one will dominate the other, sometimes to death. 3 seems to calm them down? At least that is what I was told!

I don't have any experience with 3. With a gourami topping out at 6", I don't have room for 3!

Paul

 

[finny al]

I am guessing I got extremely lucky- I bought a pair of juvenile pearls two years ago and happened to luck out with a male/female combo. They get along great, but I have had blues in the past that were fairly aggressive. unfortunately, my pair have never spawned- she gets fat as a whale and he turns bright orange on his chest, but no spawning.....of course they share their tank with a female betta and two cories, which might be the problem.

As for size, my female is a little smaller than the male, but not much- the male has much larger finnage than the female though.

 

[frshwaterfinatc]

I have an opaline gourami who I decided was absolutely demonic. He's about an inch long. When I first bought him, I put him in a tank with a female dalmation molly, her mate, and her two fry from a previous mate. The gourami seemed docile at first. Then he killed the male molly. So I bought an opaline gourami to keep him occupied. He killed the other gourami. He always left the female molly and her fry alone, and even seemed to follow and "protect" the fry. It was as if he saw the female molly as his girl- kind of strange.
So now I have the crazy tank listed below with the opaline in it, hoping the presence of members of the cichlidae family would keep him at bay. And they have. Everything is fine now. The only gouramis that I found work with other gouramis have been gaint gouramis. IME they have been very docile- so docile that I even keep a very large one in my livebearer tank with no trouble at all.
Good luck!

 

[Opalie]

I have an opaline gourami and a dwarf gourami as starter fish. The (female i think? :? ) opaline gourami (look in my gallery) is chasing the male dwarf gourami. Isn't it odd for a female to aggress a male? Would a solution be to add another dwarf gourami? What other fish from the same region do well with gouramies?

Amonia and nitrite is at zero, my PH is 8 in aquarium as well as my local water. Is this too high? Could this be the problem why my dwarf gourami is also acting as an olympic swimmer?

 

[fishlung]

All of these gourami (opaline, blue, gold) are closely related (trichogaster trichopterus). I had a pair of "3-spot" gouramis - same thing, and probably the worst of this type. The male was extremely aggressive and territorial towards the female only (not the other smaller fish in the tank). Eventually a dominant fish will emerge and slowly assert that dominance over the other. This will result in one poor gourami getting less food, getting chased a lot, becoming smaller, weaker, and probably dying.

In my experience, the Pearl is the most peaceful, and also happens to be really attractive. Still, you don't want to keep them in pairs. I say keep just one, but if you must have more then you need to have at least three.

Your milage may vary, of course. Hehe. If you want the challenge of gouramis, then I wish you luck!

 

[Max Action]

I had 2 female gold gouramis at first. One was larger than the other. She harrassed, nipped, and stressed the smaller one to death within a couple of weeks - even with a 75 gallon tank to spread out in.

Now, she does sometimes chases the German Blue Rams and the male Killifish around a bit, but nothing sustained, or damage-causing. They all get along pretty well - if I had a digital camera, I'd get some great pictures of a half-dozen species all huddled together, sharing a single food pellet.

 

[Opalie]

We lowered the temperature to 25C and things are looking better for the temper of the opaline gourami. We are thinking for our third fish of getting another dwarf gourami to ease the tension.

Sadly all we hear about gourami coabitation are near to death or death experiences...

P.S. The pet shops in Greece have big signs stating "we do not accept any returns"