Behaviour Question

[saz326]

Howdy,

I have recently upsized from a 60-ish litre to a 200 litre tank, and noticed a different bahaviour in my fish.

water stats: pH 8.0
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrate between 12.5 and 25 ppm

Tankmates
Silver tipped tetra x 5
CoryDora x 3
black skirt tetra x 3
Amano shrimp/cherry red shrimp

I have 2 red dwarf Gourami (sold as "red robbin gourami" - dont know if this is their true name). Both males.

In the old 60 litre tank they used to have the occational chase and one was clearly dominant, but since moving into the new tank they are behaving totally differently.

They follow each other around constantly unless feeding, and also swim next to each other (head to tail) in a display - quivering their bodies against each other........ I thought this was fish flirting?!?

Could my two boys have fallen in love with each other?

 

[gzylo]

Howdy,

I have recently upsized from a 60-ish litre to a 200 litre tank, and noticed a different bahaviour in my fish.

water stats: pH 8.0
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrate between 12.5 and 25 ppm

Tankmates
Silver tipped tetra x 5
CoryDora x 3
black skirt tetra x 3
Amano shrimp/cherry red shrimp

I have 2 red dwarf Gourami (sold as "red robbin gourami" - dont know if this is their true name). Both males.

In the old 60 litre tank they used to have the occational chase and one was clearly dominant, but since moving into the new tank they are behaving totally differently.

They follow each other around constantly unless feeding, and also swim next to each other (head to tail) in a display - quivering their bodies against each other........ I thought this was fish flirting?!?

Could my two boys have fallen in love with each other?

Hi i`m not an expert but i do not think its ok to keep just males gourami as they will tend to fight/impress each other, I would suggest to get some females or try to swap one male for female at lfs and get 2 more females

the ratio should be minimum 1 male to 2 females

 

[Phage]

I think they are displaying to show off who is the bigger male, so establishing dominance possibly.

 

[Colin_T]

Dwarf gouramis are pretty peaceful and unlikely to kill each other. They are simply showing off to one another because they are in a new tank. You can add some more plants, especially floating plants, and this can help provide a bit more cover and help reduce the possible aggression. If you add a couple of females you can cause and increase in aggression because the males will have something to fight over. But in a 200litre tank two males are unlikely to cause any real damage to each other.

 

[Reesy1989]

how long have they been in this larger tank?

As I have read somewhere (not sure if this is true) that when they are in a large tank with very little plants or places to hide they become more of a shoal fish and stick with their own kind?

Again not sure if that is true but I have never seen that kind of behavior in my tanks and mine is planted?