Aggressive pearl gourami

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

kflex

New Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Hi there, thanks in advance to anyone who comments on this post as I am a newbie to this forum and am looking for advice!

I own and operate a 20 gallon (tall) community tank. It's been setup for nearly 6 months and is inhabited by 2 swords, 6 neons, 1 SAE, 2 otos, and 2 pearl gouramis. Not knowing a lot about sexing gouramis before buying them (shame on me!) I un-educatedly walked away from my LFS with 2 males (they were in the same tank at my LFS and looked incredibly happy). Lukily, everything has been fine up until 10 days ago...

I noticed 1 of the gouramis had begun to hang-out in one corner of the tank. To this day, I have never seen it chase the other pearl or any of the other fish away from its corner. Around the same time, I noticed a dramatic increase in size in the suddenly territorially sensitive gourami. This larger gourami appears to have reached full maturity and significantly dwarfs the other.

Over the last 10 days, I also noticed that the smaller male had become injured. It originally looked to me like an infection so I began treating the tank with MelaFix. It has become apparent to me that this is not a sickness, but more likely a result of the other male being overly aggressive. The smaller pearl is missing most of its dorsal and pelvic fins. It it not puzzy or infected looking -- they appear to have been nipped away. It's eyes are fine, but other fins never seem fully 'expanded' -- they look folded/scared. It is still swimming on plane but definitely not well. The large pearl has become quite pale in color.

I'm wondering what my options are. I've thought of removing the injured pearl and keeping it in a smaller tank (tiny, less than 5 gallons). Can I leave the bigger male alone (as he doesn't seem to harass anything)? I'm afraid moving the injured fish may kill it, but I'm not sure he has much left in him. I suppose it wouldn't be wise to remove the injured and replace it with a female? Are pearl's okay on their own?

Again, I've spent hours watching the pair over the last few days and have yet to see even the slightest indication of chasing or aggressive behaviour... put the little guy is missing fins! Thanks again for your help.
 
Hey, i keep 5 gouramis as you can see in my sig at the bottum of this post.

I have personally found pearl gouramis very pleasent to keep. I have 1 male to 4 females though, so luck is on my side! But you may encounter other people have had different experines with pearls to me!! :D

I would isolate your sick male in the other tank. Im not sure how many litres in a gallon cause i only know litres...sorry. But if he is gonna get picked on more he will reach the point of no return....other than that i would suggest you talk to your lfs and maybe they would take him back. I dunno. (its a great excuse for another tank though :nod: )

Adding another female would be a bad move, because i fear your male would do the same to her as he did to the other male because he already has his territory, he is an aggresive fish, and there wouldnt be much hidy places for her to retreat too if he starts to pick on her. :unsure:

Sorry bout yor gourami, i hope i was atleast a little help.

And welcome to the forums!!
 
You mentioned the larger, more dominant fish looks pale? That doesn't sound good to me.

Back to your situation though, I would deffinately take one of the 2 males out. Which one is realy up to you.

Are you shure it is the other pearl causing problems though? You say you haven't actualy seen them fight so it could be one of the other fish or an isolated incident - maybe a random injury. You sound quite knowledgeable so I'm hoping you have correctly identified the SAE as some fish that are easily confused with it could have caused similar damage to your gourami. But you are probably right in thinking it was th other male; gouramies are territorial and even pearls can be aggressive.

Anyway, if you want to get females, only try this if you can remove the more aggressive fish and get 2 females. Re-aranging the tank will also help. Obviously only add 2 females if your tank has room for them without causing you to over-stock. Otherwise, either of the males, alone, will be fine.

I would suggest you return the fish to your LFS rather than keep it in a 5 gallon but it would be ok as a temporary home until you get another tank or come up with another solution.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top