Dwarf Gouramis Vs Thermometer

[Greg13]

i have two dwarf gouramis in my tank one red and the other silver with ickle red bits, they seem to be still trying to sort out who is boss, the red one, who chases the silver one likes to hide all day in the log, but he isnt scared he comes out during the water changes and gravel hoovering. whislt the silver one who stays outside of the log all day and gets chased by the red one, keeps attacking my thermometer! is it because its red at the bottom? he keeops on tail whipping it quite hard and i dont want him to damage himself or the tank!

any help welcome!
greg

 

[sylvia]

Your silver gourami is a female. Brightly colored dwarfs are male, the silver ones are females. It's typical of a male dwarf to chase 'his' female around. This can be extremely stressful for her. It may be a good idea to get one more female so that the aggression and attention from the male is at least divided between the two.

As for why she's attacking the heater, I don't know but gouramies don't 'tail-whip' so I don't know what you are actualy seeing but you've probably mistaken something for something else - could it be that she's 'flashing' against it because of irritation from ich, other parasites, fungal or bacterial infections or bad water quality? Check your water parameters and post what they are. Also, just how long have you had these two? Dwarfs are very prone to disease so moving from one environment to another can easily trigger infections which may be responsible for this kind of behaviour.