Dwarf Gouramis Nipping Eachother

[f1sh]

Got 3 the other day, they were fine with each other but my betta (who the shop told me they would be fine with) kept nipping them so i removed him. They are now fine with all of the other tetras and barbs but now keep chasing and nipping each other. Why is this? The shop had them together and told me they were fine, they dont look like they have been nipped and still dont but they are now doing it quite alot. Seeing as i have removed the betta im now quite reluctant to remove these aswell. There are 3 of them, one really bright blue, one quite pale blue with orange lines on it and one is red. What can i do? have no idea if they are male or female. please help

 

[Davo86]

Sounds like you have 3 males of the 3 colour varieties, (standard, turqoise and flame) the females are smaller and quite dull in comparison.
dwarfs do not do well with bettas, but can be ok with each other provided they each have their own territory, try adding more decor or changing the layout of the tank so that line of sight is broken up. Also what size is your tank?

 

[f1sh]

Sounds like you have 3 males of the 3 colour varieties, (standard, turqoise and flame) the females are smaller and quite dull in comparison.
dwarfs do not do well with bettas, but can be ok with each other provided they each have their own territory, try adding more decor or changing the layout of the tank so that line of sight is broken up. Also what size is your tank?

Its a 16 gallon, 30" by 12" by 15". I took them back to the LFS and they said that they were all males, and also that the different varieties would probably not be good together, so i just got 3 of the powder blue females instead. Now they are fine, I took your advice and changed the tank around and put some more plants in, so they are fine now. thanks for the advice!

 

[Recky10]

Well to me it sounds like you have territorial problems. Male dwarf Gouramis especially are territorial. In such a small tank it even adds more stress to the situation. What i would do is ask the pet store if you can exchange one male for a female, and return the other male. This way you have a male female pair. In a larger tank this situation may work and it may not Gouramis aggression tends to very on each individual fish. If you cannot switch or return for a female then you may be out of luck.

This is a pic of a male dwarf Gourami
http/www.thekrib.com/Fish/gourami.jpg

This is a pic of a female dwarf gourami
http/www.petfishtalk.com/images/gourami_...blue_female.jpg

The two are fairley easey to determin the diffrence if your pet store cannot do this, i suggest you goto a diffrent one.

Hope it helps

 

[funkycat]

How blue are the 3 new ones u picked up. I've never heard of females being described with colours, usually only males come in powder blue.
16 gallons is really only enough space for 1 male. Just keep an eye on them, if there is alot of fighting then they are males.

If there is just a little bit of picking here and there dont worry, females with still, kinda be aggressive w/ each other and 1 will establish itself as dominant. But they shouldnt do any real damage.

 

[f1sh]

Well.. they were fine for a few days, no fighting at all! but now have started nipping again. Their colours are quite bright and are starting to get more prominent orange lines on them..but when we were at the pet shop he showed us the difference between the end of the dorsal fin as apparently the males have a sharp point at the end whereas the females ones are curved. Im actually starting to doubt they are females now because one of them has got alot more aggressive than the other 2 but they still fight back often and have even started nipping other fish (my neon blue dwarf rainbow fish). Ive even added more plants and changed the tank around but it hasnt helped at all. do you reckon i should take them back to the shop? I dont want to stress them out by keep moving them around etc but i have no other ideas. helP!