kflex
New Member
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.
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.