Dancing Gouramis?

[-germ-]

Ummm....
More questions, i'm getting bored of the sound of my own voice
I recently aquired 4 gouramis who are being kept together with 4 angels (all infants).
All seems perfectly normal (if not amazingly well-behaved and friendly) but 2 of my gouramis seem to be dancing, they will make a circle, lip-to-tail with each other, and spiral in this position for anywhere from 5-8 seconds.
They seem extremely friendly with each other but i just wanted to know in advance if this is perhaps aggressive or (not now,please!!) some sort of mating behaviour?
Thanks for any replies
The Germ

 

[-Nemo-]

If you are able to sex them (and one is a female, the other a male of course) then it does sound like their mating dance(look out for bubble nests )
quick help on how to sex them: "Males will generally be more colourful than the females who tend to be more blue-grey in colour. Males will also be slightly larger and have a pointed dorsal fin when compared to the rounded dorsal of the female."

I got to see this between two of my gourami, i found it rather funny and entertaining to watch.

EDIT: If you can provide pictures, maybe people on here can voice their opinions on their sexes.

 

[-germ-]

If you can provide pictures, maybe people on here can voice their opinions on their sexes.

Cheers Nemo,
I'll be posting pictures soon, in fact after your mentioning blue colouring i'm not sure if i even know what sub-species i have
Thanks....

 

[-germ-]

PS;
Would my air-stone aid or interfere with their ability to create bubble nests?

 

[sylvia]

It would if it's strong - but you don't want bubblenests right now anyway.

it doesn't sound like spawning behaviour to me - that sort of circling is a display of aggression. They are defending their territories.

 

[NutMutt]

Yeah, hard to say for sure without seeing it directly. I have 6 Gouramis (2 snakeskin, 1 Dwarf, 1 two-spotted blue, 1 red, and 1 Gold). I am using them to cycle my new 125 gallon. But, lucky for them, I took one of my already cycled bio-wheels out of my 30 gallon tank.

Anyways, my point is, they are all friendly to each other for weeks. Then the blue started acting up, so I watched him for a couple of days. Then I noticed he was starting to get sick. I took him out and stuck him into the quarantine tank.

Point being, I have noticed fish start to beat up on each other when they sence one is sick. Then, usually the one who used to get chased, starts chasing the now "use-to-be bully" sick one.

 

[-germ-]

I agree sylvia, i upgraded my air stone yesterday to a more powerful one, hopefully that'll discourage any breeding.
Yes.....
Now they've started to chase each other, albeit for a short time and not too seriously, although i assume it will escalate rather than fade out, so i assume it was a sign of the aggression to come.
Could any one explain why my one of my silver gourami loses her stripe in the daytime (she's either a honey or a dwarf) and only shows it in the morning or just after feeding?
The other seems to have lost her stripe for good...

 

[sylvia]

The change in coloration might be a sign of stress but they also do this under normal circumstances according to mood (and that's what it sounds like in your case). They'll tend to go darker when excited (so just after the lights come on or when feeding) and then become paler.

 

[Zeoth]

Ummm....
More questions, i'm getting bored of the sound of my own voice
I recently aquired 4 gouramis who are being kept together with 4 angels (all infants).
All seems perfectly normal (if not amazingly well-behaved and friendly) but 2 of my gouramis seem to be dancing, they will make a circle, lip-to-tail with each other, and spiral in this position for anywhere from 5-8 seconds.
They seem extremely friendly with each other but i just wanted to know in advance if this is perhaps aggressive or (not now,please!!) some sort of mating behaviour?
Thanks for any replies
The Germ

That is happening to me too. I hoped it was mating beahviour instead of aggression.

 

[-germ-]

Its cute;
I'm not 100% that it is agressive behaviour, but as far as i can tell they are both male, i'm hoping its not mating else my fish are really confused.....
(or i am about their sex)
They've also taken to break-dancing; doing little head spins to stir up the substrate in pursuit of any buried food. Also one of them has decided my knuckle hairs are a fitting food source and starts sucking on them whenever i'm doing a water change!!!
Poor lad...
Thats me not the fish, knuckle hairs
Their appetites are sky high as well so i'm struggling to adjust my feeding amounts. What lasts the other fish 3 minutes will be more than half consumed by the gourami in 30 seconds.
Is this another sign of aggression/mating?

 

[fishlette]

1 two-spotted blue,

i may be crucified for this but i think you are referring to the blue or THREE spot gourami picky i know...thats just me lol the eye makes the third spot

 

[sylvia]

germ - don't feed extra. The fish will be fine with just a little food. It's better to underfeed than to overfeed and kill them off with a nitrite spike. Also, that is agression. Any time you see two male gouramies circling each other, they are sizing each other up. If they haven't started out-right attacking each other, you're lucky BTW, it's very unlikely they are females. Females are obviously duller in coloration than males and they are also not as readily available. LFSs actually won't stock them because they sell less - due to coloration.

 

[-germ-]

Yep, keeping an eye on that and gravel vacuuming with a 20% water change after every feed, i've had to feed more than i've been comfortable with recently because one of the angels had been refusing to eat anything but brine shrimp so i've been, basically, testing different food types; luckily enough i think it may have been a settling in issue and she has come round and is now nibbling on flake happily.
Hmmm... the colouration of two of the gourami is definitely female but i'm not sure of the ssp's.

The two supposed honeys (the dancers) are beginning to lose colour drastically so i'm guessing they may have been dyed, their rounded finnage looks female but its hard to tell. There is also some orange becoming apparent so that paradoxically makes me think maybe they could be male, un-dyed and considering mating (basically i don't know).
Certainly hope not i have enough problems already.

The two dancers seem quite good together outside feeding times and form a constant two fish team. One of them behaves very submissively which i think sits well with the aggressive gouramis nature.