Angry Gouramis??

[Miss Dib Dabs]

I should have mentioned this before or even made my edit a bit more obvious. They are Opaline and not 3 spot if that makes a difference......anyway my pearl has never caused a problem to any of the gouramis or other tank mates. And I have never seen any bubble nests so I doubt they are breeding.

Anyway thanks again for the replys guys!

Opaline Note the scientific name....
Three spot blue Ditto....
Three spot golden And again.
They are the same species. Opaline, three spot blue or gold.....all the same. Hence the scientific name being the same. They are just variations on the theme, so to speak.
A pearl on the other hand....
Pearl Again with the name.
They are very closely realted but not the exact same species.
Three spots (including the opaline) are notoriously more aggressive. Even the females like their own space and it becomes very apparent who's in charge where once they are adults. There will always be a top male and a top female if they are in breeding condition. And that will always cause issues. Smaller fish will be picked on whether they are breeding or not because fish, like most animals, when full of hormones, get grumpy.
Those that are breeding in my tank currently weren't always like they are. I got them fairly young and they were all happy to live with otos, baby synos and briefly with some platies. But once the big male reached breeding age he killed two of the three otos and started attacking the synos. And they aren't small! The remaining oto keeps well away, as does the the remaining syno in there. The only thing they tolerate happily are the bristlenoses. The platies were already out before then.
Hugs,
P.

 

[sylvia]

Ditto what she said

Opalines, blues, golds/goldens, platinums, cosbys and lavenders are all the same fish. They are simply different color morphs of trichogaster trichopterus. As a general name, they are called 'three-spots' (after the wid fish' markings - spot behind operculum, spot on penduncle and the eye - hence 3 spots). Think of it like guppy or platy colors - platies are all the same species and can inter-breed freely but they come in twin bar, mickey mouse or coral blue etc... Just as guppies are all the same species but may have a delta tail or a roundtail or a spade tail etc...
Here are various pictures of the three-spot variants: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gouramis,%...ichogasters.htm

As for pearls (also called lace, mosaic or leeri gouramies), they come in the one color we are all familiar with and are a seperate species - trichogaster leeri. Having said that, they CAN hybridize with three-spots but it's not reccomended that you make them do this and it won't occur naturaly if there are more gouramies of either species present. Just because I love the pics, here are some pearl photos: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gourami,%20Pearl.htm and: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gourami,%20Pearl%20More.htm

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Love the lavenders. I'd love to get some of those. Would be nice if some come from a spawning between my big gold male and either the opaline or blue female. But they aren't yet at egg producing age. Need to be patient. I can honestly say I have never seen a single lavender in any store, ever.
For some reason, like I said in an earlier post, my goldens took serious offense to the pearl (or was it moonlight....duh, brains gone) and she was dead within 12 hours.
Hugs,
P.

 

[sylvia]

I know - I love the lavenders too (though opalines are still my favourite morph). I've only ever seen them sold once and never tried breeding my own - though I did have a lavender pair for a while. The female unfortunately jumped long before she reached maturity and died as it took me a while to work out what happened and find her on the floor behind the tank . I did breed the male to a blue female but without any lavenders resulting.
I haven't bred any three-spots in a while but, if I do, I hope I remeber to try a gold/opaline cross and see what I get .
Good luck with yours, do post some pics if you get lavender fry!
Excuse this off-topic post BTW...

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

) I do apologise Barday. Is entirely my fault for drifting off topic. No excuses either since I modmin on another site.
Yeah, if I get any lavendars I will post pics. I think all the recent ones are gonna be golden tho. Still lovely.
Hugs,
P.