Flirty / Playful Gourami? Behaviour Advise Please!

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

embsidney20

Fish Fanatic
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
70
Reaction score
29
I have recently added some fish to my new tank; 1 Tiger Loach, 1 Golden Nugget Ple. c and 2 Opaline Gouramis. They have now been settled for 3days. Plec and Loach are very active and seem happy, however my two Gouramis are very shy and wont come out of hiding unless the light is switched off. They are all apparently "wild caught" fish so I can understand if they are being timid due to being taken from their natural environment and placed in a small cramped tank in a shop. My tank is 180litres so pretty big for the small amount of residents. The water is fine, well oxygenated and plenty of hiding spaces.
The gouramis never leave eachothers sides and rarely come out to be seen.
I have found that when i dim the lighting they eventually come out and display behaviour I have never seen in Gouramis I have previously owned.
They seem to play "tag" with one another, calmly and actually quite gracefully chasing eachother, always changing who is being chased when they nudge eachother. (definately not fin nipping or pecking at eachother) this probably seems quite a childish way to describe it but its quite enntertaining.
During this "playtime" they will circle each other and rub against one another. Always touching eachother with their 'whiskers'. None of this behaviour is erratic or fast paced, all seems very chilled out to me. I do know that the whiskers are used for communication but not sure on the rest.

I am not 100% sure on the sex of either fish, one is very distinctly marked, resembling a very colourful blue tiger striped body, whereas the other is alot paler and slightly smaller.
If anyone has an understanding of this please let me know as most of all i'd like to know if my fish are as happy as possible considering they have been taken from their natural habitat.
 
I have no particular advice for you other than if that is a true Tiger Loach then they can be aggressive. I do however very much doubt you own any wild caught Opaline Gourami's as i am pretty sure they are a colour morph of the Three Spot Gourami.
 
Loach is fine, minds its own buisness, hides most of the time and eats alot. No signs of aggression in the tank at all.
And Thankyou, did not know that, just going by what the guys in the shop said as according to them the only captive bred were the zebra plecs.

Gouramis are quite active at night as i said but very shy of flaked foods, one seems to try but other doesnt seem interested. Any other foods they may show an interest in? Dont want any live foods yet until there are more fish.
 
Have you considered trying pellet or perhaps frozen food?
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Back
Top