Fighting gourami

tanker

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Tamworth. UK
I have 2 pearl gourami, and recently i've noticed a bit of 'bullying'. One of them, usually at feeding time chases the other away from the food. When he does this, the other goes into the corner and lays on its side on the gravel until the other goes away. He does get something to eat, but very limited. Is there anything i can do, or are they playing? There are no marks on the bullied one.
 
I have 3 powder blues that do the same thing. the middle size one chases the large one and the baby around all day long. I don't know how to sex the powder blues though. I may have to give 2 up :-(
 
Well, the more you get, probably the less they will concentrate on just one fish. I had one powder blue and one flame. The flame was going after the powder all of the time, so I brought the flame back. He annoyed me too much to deal with it. I then got 2 more powders. It seems to be in their nature to go after each other to some degree, but having 3 of them and of the same kind seemed to have made it better. They don't go after each other as hard as the flame would go after the other one. Poor guy. Anyhow, I would suggest getting 3-5 of them and hopefully they won't concentrate on just one and it should calm them a little I suppose. You prob. don't want 2 males and one female either. That would be bad from what I have read. Too much competition for breeding or whatnot. And from what I understand, the males are the more colorful ones, but you may want a moderator to back up that statement. Lastly, depending on your tank size you may not want to get too many of them. I suggest at least 3 with plants and stuff to get away from the other ones and that should work.
 
Oops, posted twice!

Cool, sounds like a good excuse to get more fish! :thumbs:

Theres a pic of the two in a post called my humble tank in members pics, but i don't know how to link it. don't know if it would help in sexing the two?
 
hey guys,
I've been told that you can identify the sex of Gourami's by the anal fin, if it has more of a pointed look then its a male & if its more rounded then you've got a female
 
Going on the anal fins, i've 2 females! :unsure: Would that account for the their behaviour? Should i get a rugged male to take their minds off each other?
 
pearl gouramis can be sexed by the top fin [sorry dont know what its called] just checked out ,, its the dorsal fin, the males is noticably longer than the females . all males have the red bellie but occasionally the female will have a slight tinge of red as well ,the sure way of telling is the dorsal fin being longer ,the males can sometimes be a bit rough with their females ,but in my experience they are not quite as harsh as yours. it sounds like you have two males .would be interested to know as gouramis are my favourite fish. pebbles
 
Been doing some reading and head scratching. Think its 2 females.?

The dorsal fin is rounded on both, quite short, the orangeness is on the front of the anal fin, and not so much up the sides of its belly. oh, and the belly are quite rounded. Other than that, i don't know. Been trying to get some good pics, but they wont stay still!

All behaviour points to males though. Oh, now i'm really confused! :S

WILL get some pics - eventually!
 
Um, don't really know, Pebbles, bought them a couple of weeks ago. If it's any help, they're about 5cm long.Pics
 

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