gourami behavior

[rokinrandy]

Hello,,
I have 2 male gouramis in a community fish tank with some guppies and algae eater.... 1 of them hides at the bottom of the tank behind a plant in the corner...it won't come out to eat at feeding time..and sometimes i think it's dead or asleep..it has been acting like this for a week...

what causes gouramis to act this way????

i do my testing and everything is at recomended levels...of course my nitrates are always at 20, there is nothing i can do to get that lower,,it has always been that way ..i guess that is nobig deal in this case...

 

[JustOneMore20]

Since you have 2 males, one may be harrassing the other. You may not see it because it may do it at night. Sneak up on the tank at night and see if you catch the other gourami harrassing the one thats hiding. I had this happen with Dwarf Gouramis before. Usually its not good to keep 2 males together.

If its not being stressed out, then it may just be shy. I have a very shy Blue Gourami that hides when I'm near the tank. He won't eat until I walk away. Nothing is harrassing him, its just how he is. Your gourami could be the same way. I'd rule out stress first though.

 

[crazyred]

2 male gouramis in one tank is bad news....much like bettas, they will fight. If you have somewhere to take the scared one to, by all means, do so. I had problems with a female Opaline Gourami and a male dwarf gourami getting along. I had to seperate them ASAP, or one would have ended up dead. Gouramis are tough fish to mix.

 

[gu2high]

I have 1 male and 1 female dwarf gourami in a 58 gal tank. The male always harass and chases the female but it is not too serious and the female is still running around.

 

[leoslizards]

I'm currently having this problem with my gouramis as well. I have 3 gouramis in my 29g tank. All males. 2 dwarf and 1 sunset. They always hide behind objects and plants. They don't even come out during feeding time. I always see the bigger dwarf chase the smaller one and the sunset chase the big dwarf.

I never had this problem before when I had 6 males (5 dwarf, 1 sunset) and 2 females (1 dwarf, 1 sunset) in the same 29g tank. The only time they would fight is when they each picked a spot in the tank to build their nests one gourami would swim up to another male's nest destroy it and steal their nesting material. (leafs) All those gouramis except the 1 male sunset died from diseases. I got the 2 new dwarfs from one of the nests.

Anyways, they are slowly starting to come out more often. Usually when no one is around. Just yesterday morning as I was going down the stairs and saw that all three where happily swimming around chasing each other but as soon as they noticed me they went back into hiding.
Sometimes I would see one come out from hiding during the day (usually the sunset gourami) and I would slowly walk up to the tank and stare him right in the eyes and he would just stand there. I'm guessing this might be helping them get over the fear of humans. If I make a sudden move they disappear like magicians!

As for my water parameters, they are currently bad. I'm trying to lower my ph and kh. Ph=7.5 Kh=110 and I just raised my water temp from about 54ºF to about 70ºF. I think my my heater or thermometer might be broken. I got my heater at the highest setting, it says 99ºF but my thermometer says 70ºF.

 

[7Enigma]

Go get a new heater ASAP. You risk a lot of problems having a dysfunctional heater. Why are you trying to lower your pH and KH? Both are fine.

 

[Zagz]

More than one male gourami will usually cause aggression and stress. With gourami's it is better to have 2 females to one male or at the very least one female and one male. Rokinrandy, I would either get rid of the male for a female or at the very least add more hiding spots. I assume the fish are in your 55 gal? More hiding spots may solve the problem for you in that size of tank.

Please keep the thread on topic with the OP's problem. If you have other problems not related to the op's, please feel free to start a thread of your own. The members will be happy to help.

 

[leoslizards]

Go get a new heater ASAP. You risk a lot of problems having a dysfunctional heater. Why are you trying to lower your pH and KH? Both are fine.

I posted a new topic explaining this.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=93924

 

[BrianNY]

If you stop and think about it gouramis are air breathers. Closely related to bettas, the males will fight with each other. It's just natures way.