Blue Gouramis "kissing"

[terrorist_124]

hey ,

i got 2 blue gouramis in a 60g tank along with quite a few other fish.
one of them i'm suire is female the other i don't know.

i jus realized after feeding than they are locking jaws for a few seconds every time they meet and one of them is unusually a bit aggressive towards the other fish.

are they breeding or just playin around?

thankx every1

 

[sylvia]

The behaviour you are describing is aggressive behaviour and either means the fish are deciding to establish a hierarhcy/dominance/settle territories or is a sign that they are interested in breeding and are now testing each other's strength. If you have pictures of the fish, I'd be happy to sex them for you and I may also be able to tell whether they are going to spawn soon. Certainly the fact that one is becoming more aggressive may be an indication of his disire to build a bubblenest and spawn.

 

[Destany]

My two male blue gourami's have done this, it freaked me out at first, but they were only establishing a hierarchy as Sylvia said. If that's what your fish are doing, you're actually fortunate that this is how they are displaying their aggression, they must be fairly equal in eachother eyes. Otherwise, one would just be terrorizing the other until the lesser one ended up dead.

I solved my fighting problem by reorganizing the tank. Since it was territory they were fighting over, I put in place a tall element (plant) in the middle of the tank to create a visual border. They were able to establish that as the barrier between the territories, and now they get along really well.

I haven't had any spawing, so if that's what's happening I can't be of any help.