Aggressive Pearl Gourami...

[Ryehard]

I'm relatively new to the aquarium hobby and I have been doing as much research as I can in setting up my tank. The posts and articles here have been very helpful in the process and all has been going quite well until now. I recently purchased 2 Pearl Gouramis to finish off my tank stocking (for now), and for the first few days after putting them in they got along splendidly. Every once in a while one of them would give the other a little nip on the side, mostly during feeding, but it just seemed to be a playful gesture so I ignore it. Recently however, it has gotten worse and the other is being constantly pursued and bitten. I finally moved the aggressor into a quarantine tank. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what should be done? I'd bring one of them back, but I wasn't sure if the other would be lonely without another fish of his type. Thanks for the help!

 

[rich311k]

Sounds like you had two males. Pearls are more peaceful than other gouramis but there are exceptions. I have had one alone for several years, she seems to be a very happy fish. Fish have there own personalities. You must have gotten a rotten apple.

 

[Zagz]

I agree you must have one with a temperment for aggression. I have 3 of them together and they get along fine. You may just have to return the aggressive one and live with one, or try and get a couple of females to one male and see if that works better.

 

[Ryehard]

Thanks for the quick replies! I'm not entirely sure what the sex is of both of them but they look pretty much the same so I'm assuming they're both male. If I can get pics of them then I'll poste em. Nonetheless, it seems like I'll have to return the aggressive one and I'll decide what to do from there. Thanks again.

 

[kaz]

is it possible that aggresion develops at the fish breeders? maybe they treat bad or mess with it alot what you think?

 

[RoK]

Males have long, pointed dorsal fins and females have shorter, rounded ones. Also, the males usually have more red on them. http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/sbs/anabantids/sbs_pearl.jpg
Female top, male bottom in the pic.

I have no experience with male pearls, so I don't know if they are generally territorial.

 

[kaz]

wow rok what kind of fish is that on the left picture?

 

[Ryehard]

Looks like some kind of Gourami... Opaline? Really beautiful whatever it is. Looking at those Pearl pics I've decided both of mine were definately male. I brought the aggressive one back to the store and the other one seems really happy now and swims around like he owns the place. Now I just need to decide what else I'm going to get seeing as I'm probably understocked...

 

[RoK]

Well, being understocked is much better than overstocked since it's much easier to maintain. You could probably go with a school of barbs, if you like any.
Yes, the fish in my ava is an opaline.

 

[Ryehard]

Yeah I've actually seen a few Barbs that looked pretty cool to me. I'll have to check my LFS to see what they have in stock. For now though I think I'll take your advice and enjoy the easier maintenance of and understocked tank and take my time to learn more about different types of fish and possibly plants (one step at a time).