Agressive Male Dwarf Gourami

[abw0004]

I have two Dwarf Gouramis, one male and one female. For the past couple of days, the male has been very aggressive, chasing the female everywhere. She tries to hide from him as I have plenty of hiding places but he seeks her out. Every time I see her she seem out of breath. The male is not aggressive towards the other fish though. Is this normal? I have floating plants on order too hoping this will calm him/her down.

 

[Mebbid]

Are you sure the other dwarf gourami is female? Can you post a pic of them both? How large is this tank?

Really there isn't a whole lot you can do about territorial aggression in fish. Your best bet is to pull the aggressive one out and rearrange the tank. Add him back in when its all done.

 

[abw0004]

As far as I know and have been told it is a female. Here is a picture:



She is silver and a little smaller than the male who is orange and blue:



My tank is 25 gallons with peaceful tank mates with a lot of plants and a hallow tree root thing. I have some close up pictures in my profile.

 

[Paul1792]

I had exact same problem in 29 gallon tank.

I had one male ...... one female .... description same as yours. The male finally chased her to death. It's as if he and my rainbow shark both hated her. They'd both chase her constantly, especially at feeding time so she couldn't eat. She finally died ... probably of starvation. Later, I added four more males (powder blue) ....... for a total of 5 male dwarf gourami. I also added a small angelfish. Now the tank is peaceful and everybody gets along great.

[Full stock is in my profile]

 

[trinifella]

I don't know who pissed these DGs off man, but they have some serious anger issues!!!

 

[Paul1792]

My five dwarf gouraimi are doing fine

There are simply no anger issues in my 29 gallon tank. Five males getting along in total peace. The 2" Angelfish is in fact an angel that is accepted by other tank-mates.

The five male Gourami get along with each other very well.

The only anger issue I have seen since I last posted was from the Rainbow Shark. It would chase everyone. But after a while, gave up and became peaceful.

Final recommendation: Go with 5 Dwarf Gourami males. They are beautiful.

 

[absolutangel04]

That appears to be a male dg. I do not see the body type that indicates a female. Male dg can be rather silver too, though it is not as common. I think you have 2 males. Though, it is a little hard to tell because of the tank distortion and it is certainly easier to sex them once larger.
If it is a female, it is possible that she is not big enough to breed yet and the male is pushing a fish out of his territory that he cannot breed with in hopes of one coming along that he can breed with.

 

[Grumble69]

It might be a sex issue. Sometimes a single male will harass a single female who is not in the mood.

 

[D_Tristan22]

I have one male dg and 2 females. Keeps the male occupied chasing one while the other rests then vice versa. I recommend adding another female.