Are They Breeding?

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LittleL

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ok, im a newbie fish keeper and i have four dwarf gouramis who are very happy together. two are honey dwarf gouramis and two are silver colour ones....

anyway, the two honey's (one male, one female) play with each other all day and night. The male chases the female and she follows him around consently.... she is not stressed by his chasing at all. They swim around each other and the male one alway pushes on the females belly with him head... there never apart and its so funny to watch them....

why do they do this? are they breeding? is this normal behavior?
 
By 'red honey dwarf', do you mean this fish:
Gourami-HoneyRedDwarf.gif

(this is a male honey gourami - colisa chuna/sota)

Or this fish:
Gouram39.jpg

(these are male dwarf gouramies - colisa lalia).


The 'silver ones' are females BTW.


This is usual behaviour which is very common between opposite sex gouramies. Whether this is stressful or not on the female is a different matter - they are certainly not 'playing' and the 'head-butting' type of behaviour you're describing is usualy something the females don't appreciate. Still, if you say she doesn't mind, I'll trust your judgement since I can't see them.

On the other hand, you spoke of your 'honey dwarfs' specificaly - are you sure these are not two males? If so, the behaviour is hierarchical but probably not too big of a problem (at least not for the time being).

While this kind of behaviour between male/female gouramies is very much linked to breeding/spawning, yours are not. If they were, the male will have built a bubblenest and be somewhat more aggressive than he sounds - not just towards 'his' female, but towards all the other tankmates as well. Even if he were to build a nest and they were to spawn, the eggs/fry won't survive in a community set-up (how big is it BTW? 4 gouramies is quite a lot if this is a small tank...).

I assure you that, if they do try to spawn, you'll know - the male blows a floating 'nest' of bubbles, using bits of plants as a support framework and he'll guard this ferociously (relatively speaking). He'll coax the female under it and then they 'embrace' - he raps his body rounds hers and she releases the floating eggs which he then fertilises. He'll collect any that don't make it into his nest and, once the female's done releasing eggs, he'll chase her away and continue guarding the nest. Like I said, this will be very obvious to you if it happens as the behaviour is particularly distinctive and interesting.

Have fun with your gouramies - they are wonderful fish! :D
 
thank you for your reply, it was very helpful.

I have four dwarf gouramis as i mentioned. One looks like the first picture you posted, with a black strip on his belly... two of them are a red/orange colour and look like the small as the first picture (same shape, size etc) and one looks like the first picture but without the black strip (hope this makes sense?!)

Anyway, the two red/orange ones are the two acting funny. nither of them looked stressed out and there is lots of plants and hiding places for them to go to if they wanted to get away from each other, but its like they actually like chasing each other. one is a female and the other is a male (going by what i have learnt to sex gouramis.... by looking at the shape of there fins... ones more pointed, ones rounder)

anyway, i love my gouramis, there so funny to watch and have so much character :lol:

if any one of them looked stressed or was getting bullied, then i would separate them, but to be fair, i dont think its got to that point and they all look happy... The headbutting from the male that i discribed is not very often, only when he can get to the female (she is a fast little thing, but alway comes back to the male for more...! this is why i know she is not stressed...)

Anyway, thanks for the info. Ill keep an eye on them.. but as you mentioned, id know what a bubblenest is so i know if they were planning on spawning...

Laura
 
If your fish are like the one in the first pic (ignoring color), they are not technicaly 'dwarf' gouramies. They are just 'honey' gouramies. Dwarf gouramies and honey gouramies are different species and can behave quite diferently. Honeys are slightly smaller than dwarfs and using the fins for sexing is more difficult with honeys and far less reliable. Also, mature male honeys develop that dark blue-black ventral color while females do not.

'Honey dwarf' is the name usualy given to the 'honey' gourami (first pic). However, some dwarf color variants are also labelled 'honey/red/flame dwarf' gouramies and this adds to the confusion.

I'm still not clear on exactly what you own but it sounds like you have one definite male honey. The other three, if they are the same type of gourami and same size, are actualy probably all female honeys. You could post pics for help if you like.

The point is, the two that chase each other around could actualy both be female. This is also normal. The chasing is to do with establishing hierarchy and the reason they hang around together a lot is simply that females do tend to enjoy (it looks like anyway) the companionship of others of their kind. They'll also try to stay near males if no females are around but males tend to chase them away after a while.

Either way, the behaviour is natural, I just figured you may want to know exactly what species and sex your fish are :)
 

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