Nibbling Gourami

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jodie_jo

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
53
Location
UK
I have a female dwarf gourami and another gourami, male i think (he is red and blue and has darker stripes) the male keeps "sucking" at the female gourami. Its worrying me as i dont want to find one of them floating on the top when i wake up tomorrow. He does it all over her body and keeps chasing after her so she does it back! Anyone tell me what they're up to?

thanks.
 
i would post some pics and find out for sure the sexes. if you have two males in a small tank they will be aggressive toward each other. if its a male and a female, then the male is harrassing her to mate, still may stress her to the point of no return. what size tank do you have.
 
I agree. You should seperate them. Either get a divider, another tank (what can I say, I have MTS :p ), or bring one back to the store.
If the tank is large enough (30+ gallons), you can try getting some more females so the aggression is more spread out.
 
I would agree that you might have 2 males. I also have to agree with contracting MTS. LOL.

Pics would help sex the gourami's. What size is your tank? How long have the fish been in there? If they are relatively new to the tank, aggression is most likely the reasoning behind the behaviour. You do need to separate them so as to avoid any injuries.
 
i have a 65ltr tank which has just enough fish in so cant really get anymore.

they are the ones in the background, had to resize the picture so doesnt look as great now. the female dwarf is a pearly yellow colour (the congo isnt included in this!)

thanks.
 

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Looks like a male and a female. The female looks pretty pale. I had a male stress a female to death.....literally. He wouldn't let her eat or swim anywhere near where he was....which was everywhere! He got his payback when he tried to bully a Bolivian Ram.
 
Actually, those are two different species of gouramis. The one on the right is a female dwarf gourami. The one on the left is a female banded gourami (Colisa fasciata) http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=4770&genusname=Colisa&speciesname=fasciata.
The banded gouramis can get to almost 5". I've had one about that size. She was huge compared to dwarfs. I would seperate them as soon as possible.

Have you asked your LFS if they'll take one back?
 
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