How do you tame a gourami?

[fishphenome]

Hi folks. I have a 29 gallon tank with 2 keyhole cichlids as 2 pearl gouramis (1male, 1female). The male gourami chases the female gourami around the tank. She is not showing signs of stress or injury but I am starting to feel sorry for her! How do I get the male to chill out? I thought about adding another female gourami but I would be a dwarf species. What do you think?

 

[Mosaic]

Take the female out or add a few more females of the same species. There's not much you can do to help her unless you change the dynamics in there. Perhaps making an area of the tank heavily planted would give her a place to hide.

 

[Speakerman]

you take the mean gourami out and put it in with some really mean cichlids for a few days or weeks. Then return it to the previous home. I've done this with several types of fish and with good results. They come back nicer for some reason.

 

[Mosaic]

If they come back
I honestly don't think they get nicer because they've learned their lesson or got a taste of their own medicine. They're probably stressed from being bullied.

There was also someone here who said they "re-educated" a tiger barb by putting it in a breeder trap for a while. I thought that was pretty funny.

But really, I don't think you can change a fish's fundamental nature that way. Their behavior is hard-wired. The way to change how a fish acts is to change the fish it's with.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

this is very problematic for many people. Its in a male fishs nature to attempt to mate with the female. Chasing it around the tank tirelessly until they kill them will sometimes result, if not, it will stress her so bad she will die of some other causes like infections. The best thing you can do, and the most simple, is add a few more females. "safety in numbers" goes a long way here. If the male has say 3 females to chase, and can only chase one at a time... then they all have some time to rest. That or remove the male.

 

[J-D]

I agree. Male gouramis are notoriously randy little buggers. Although we humans might not approve one male gourami is often too much for only one female.