Are Pearls Territorial?

[Weaver]

I bought 2 pearl gouramis last week and have housed them in a 3ft 28 uk gallon tank.One of them stays at a bare section at the front of the tank and will chase anything that comes along but seems to really hate the silver tip tetra.
Are they territorial as I had no aggression at all from my last pearl.?
The 2 pearls dont bother with each other and the 2nd one dosent bother any of the other fish
There are 8 silvertips in the tank with 4 platys and 3 male guppys.No fin nipping in evidence at all
I think they are both very young males and not remotely as shy as pearls are normally

 

[LoachLover]

Fish have different personalities. The Pearl Gouramis I've had have been agressive, but not overly.

 

[Ethos]

I've only had a female pearl, and she was second in commend out of three.
So she wasent the most bullied, but she still got bullied. She also sometimes bullied my opaline.

 

[sylvia]

Yes, males are territorial - but they are not overly-aggressive. Females won't usualy show territoriality but occasionaly they might if they are crowded or feel threatened. If you have 2 males in a 20 gallon some territoriality is expected - 20 gallons is not a very large volume so it's natural for any intrusive tetras to be viewed as threats or intruders and chased away. Younger gouramies are also still at the stage where they are establishing the pecking order and new fish also need to establish their territories and make sure no one will get the better of them later on. Having said that, gouramies vary greatly in character and, though it was only one out of hundreds (I breed pearls quite regularly so I've gotten to know quite a few ), I did have one male once who was down right evil and killed a lot of his tankmates.

 

[Weaver]

Ta for the advice.
I will keep an eye on things and if any serious aggression starts I will stick him in another tank.
Theres some advantages to having MTS.
BTW I would have thought that my tank which is 28ukg would have been plenty big enough for 2 pearls?

 

[sylvia]

Oh sorry if I didn't make that clear - your tank IS big enough fo the two pearls - perfectly fine size-wise and more than enough - it's just that, whilst in a bigger tank - say 55 gallons - you wouldn't notice any territoriality, in a tank around the size yours is, some territoriality is to be expected. It shouldn't get out of hand with pearls as they aren't realy aggressive and, as long as they aren't over-crowded and have plenty of places to hide and set up territories in, they should be absolutely fine together.