Male Pearl Gourami breeding aggression

[Dan1984]

Hi, I have at the moment 1 male and 1 female pearl gourami. It used to be 3 female and 1 male but the 2 other females were juveniles and the male harassed them to death presumably because they weren't sexually mature, now all his attention is focused on the adult female I've separated them for now, the female is in a 10g quarrentine and the male has stayed in the community tank. The reason is that the male was just chasing her all the time, not nipping or anything just following her until she lay exhausted on the bottom of the tank. Anyway I've come up with two possible options to solve this..

Option 1: put the male in the 10g quarrentine instead and buy two more females (LFS only has juveniles) let them mature in the community tank with the adult female and then add the male when they're a good enough size... Anyone have any idea what age pearls mature? And could I keep the male in a 10g for that long?

Option 2: Return the male and get 1 male and 2 female juveniles put them all in with the adult female in the community tank.

I'd rather keep the male as he was my first pearl but I want to do what's best for the fish.. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[charliebankston]

I think either of your options would be better than them together. He'll eventually stress her until she dies. Most all species of fish act in this way, the male harassing for breeding like that. More females spreads the harassment around, so one is not worn out. I once had a pair of convicts, and to get away from the m , the f literally got out of the tank and into the hob filter. Craziest thing I've ever seen. She survived and lives with all females to this day.

 

[Dan1984]

Wow, so 8 guess my question is can I keep the male in a tank as small as my quarrentine for the few months it would take for new juveniles to grow out or is that cruel, should I just return him to the LFS?

 

[charliebankston]

Honestly I don't know that answer. I have a couple of gourami, but each in a separate community 65g. I'm not sure of the recommendation for tank size. But then again, it's only temporary housing. ?? I'm not much help on that, sorry

 

[Dan1984]

That's OK I'm really grateful for your input anyway. It would only be temporary yeah but a couple of months is a long time in a tank that's too small

 

[charliebankston]

True true