Red Dwarf Gourami

[sieski]

I have a pair of these. The female has lost half a feeler. She seems to be happy swimming back and forth eating feeling stuff with her feelers. She has gone very silver and most of her small amount of red has gone.

Should I worry? Will it grow back? If not what problems will she have? I presume she won't breed now.

 

[kellyinvancouver]

The feeler will grow back eventually. It won't affect her breeding. Color change (espescially silver, IME) indicates stress. She is being harassed too much by the male gourami. You need to get 1 or 2 more females. Male DGs are real wifebeaters... I have had females die from stress in 1:1 and even 2:1 female to male ratios.

 

[Etunes]

The feeler will grow back eventually. It won't affect her breeding. Color change (espescially silver, IME) indicates stress. She is being harassed too much by the male gourami. You need to get 1 or 2 more females. Male DGs are real wifebeaters... I have had females die from stress in 1:1 and even 2:1 female to male ratios.

Exactly, you also need to make sure there is alot of things to break there line of eye sight between the 2. That is why gourami's should be in planted tanks. To break eyesight from the male gouromis and make the fish less stressed and feel secure. So you also need to make sure your tank is set up correctly. Also the male/female ratio will help a ton. Not allowing the male to focus on only 1 female. Because the color change indicates stress, and the more drastic of a change the more stress most likely. And the dwarf gouromis tend to be REAL bad at that like kelly said.

 

[sieski]

The feeler will grow back eventually. It won't affect her breeding. Color change (espescially silver, IME) indicates stress. She is being harassed too much by the male gourami. You need to get 1 or 2 more females. Male DGs are real wifebeaters... I have had females die from stress in 1:1 and even 2:1 female to male ratios.

That might be a problem. Every LFS sells them as pairs only. I tried to get just a male one as I had them for colour but kept being told pair's only. She's gone more red now not far off how she was before.

To be fair the gf went up and found the 4 year old had netted her out and put her on top of the condensation tray the night before we noticed the feeler. I'm wondering if he was a bit rough in handling her (well not wondering thinking most likely actually)

Last resort She could get a house swap with a few platys from another tank. Maybe a month or 2 with some neons and mollies might save any more feeler snacks

How long for a feeler to grow back?

 

[Etunes]

That might be a problem. Every LFS sells them as pairs only. I tried to get just a male one as I had them for colour but kept being told pair's only. She's gone more red now not far off how she was before.

To be fair the gf went up and found the 4 year old had netted her out and put her on top of the condensation tray the night before we noticed the feeler. I'm wondering if he was a bit rough in handling her (well not wondering thinking most likely actually)

Last resort She could get a house swap with a few platys from another tank. Maybe a month or 2 with some neons and mollies might save any more feeler snacks

How long for a feeler to grow back?

Honestly have no clue, Never have timed it.

But i would not worry about that, she will get around without it. If he get too ruff with her i would definatly transpert her to the other tank, but i would focus geting another female. O ya, i am guessing getting netted out by a 4 year old and placed on dry land would stress her out a little.

 

[kellyinvancouver]

That might be a problem. Every LFS sells them as pairs only. I tried to get just a male one as I had them for colour but kept being told pair's only. She's gone more red now not far off how she was before.
How long for a feeler to grow back?

Grr I know! I got a pair from my LFS the first go round and suprise-suprise, the female is dead within the week. So I told them the story and that I thought it was stress, so they replaced the female and I bought an extra, even though they only sold them in pairs. I think the only reason they do this is that they can't sell the females otherwise because they aren't that flashy and don't squirt out babies like guppies do lol. If you go to the LFS and say 'Look. I want a freaking female.' they will probably sell you one. Wheras I don't think they'd do the same if you asked for a lone male because then they'd have a lone female that they couldn't sell. If you ask, I would also be interested to here why they only sell them in pairs lol!

It depends on how much is bitten off. Maybe a month or so. It may be a little crooked after.