Hello! *waves*

[Carecalmo]

Hi everyone! My name is Kristin and I'm from the US. *waves* I've been lurking around reading just about everything I can on here for the past 3 weeks so I thought I'd join up. I was so relieved to find this forum. My Mom has been a "fish mommy" for about 3 years but she keeps five (rather large now!) fancy goldfish. I cycled my tank in about 3 and a half weeks with some help from my Mom's tank. Yesterday (after a few readings of no amonia or nitrites), we decided my tank was ready. So I got, after much research, 5 black skirt tetras, 2 zebra danios and 2 dwarf gouramis.

I have a tiny question about dwarf gouramis. Well, two questons. First, this is a male, right? Both of them have alike dorsal fins. I hope the picture isn't too big. If it is I'll fix it.

Second, queston. One of them is very active, swimming around exploring everything.. but not agressive. I haven't seen it nipping at any of the other fish, chasing them or anything. The other dwarf gourami, however, stays mostly hidden and not moving around much although I noticed last night it was about swimming. Is he probably just being shy or is there possibly something wrong with it?

Kristin

 

[SimoUK]

HI! and welcome to ff

I wouldnt say there is something wrong with the one that hides alot, are you sure you dont have one male and one female? I have one M and one F in my 40 gallon, the female stays very much hidden, whereas the male is very active swimming around constantly, the hidden one is probably just shy. The other possibility is that it has just been introduced to its new surroundings and is taking some time to get used to it, i wouldnt worry

Simo

 

[Carecalmo]

Thanks for the welcome, Simo. :] Ah maybe it is a female. I finally got a better look at it and snapped a picture. Is it indeed a female?

Good to hear I shouldn't worry. I was reading that they can have quite varied personalities.

 

[SimoUK]

Yep. the second one looks like a female to me, Rounder fin and a more rounded belly (Y)

From what you have said it seems you have the same behaviour as mine, The male is very active, whereas the female is alot more shy and tends to spend 75% of the time hiding out and around the parts of the tank with more cover, only fully coming out to feed?

Simo

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to our forum Carecalmo.
Almost any dwarf gourami tat you find in a US fish shop is a male. Females are simply not offered for sale here. A female is a nondescript silvery fish that would not impress anyone and seems to be unavailable through the usual fish trade. It seems almost like the breeders have decided to never allow a female to be found so that they can have a strangle hold on the supply of gouramis. For me that simply means no gouramis in my tanks. I refuse to play along with any such schemes. Instead, I have loads of other fish who breed for me and do not keep fish where there is no chance of a breeding taking place.

 

[SimoUK]

hmm. Im in the UK, i have an opaline dwarf, and it is certainly a female, with nice colours too.

 

[OldMan47]

Carecalmo and I are both in the US
Some things really are different in different places although the basic principles never change with location.

 

[Assaye]

Carecalmo, both of the gouramis are male. That might explain why one is hiding a lot. Males shouldn't really be mixed in small tanks - I wouldn't keep two males in less than a 25-30 gallon tank.

Fish do have different personalities but they should still exhibit natural, active behaviours. Hiding away implies stress and insecurity.

What size tank do you have them in?

 

[Carecalmo]

Oh gosh, I feel just terrible I've stressed him out. I'll take him back to the store tomorrow. Hopefully he'll find a better home.

It's night time now (tank light turned off) and he's swimming around some but not at all like the other fish. He was up in the left corner so I took a teensy bit of food, dropped it right above his head and he still wouldn't eat it. I guess it didn't help the other gourami came up and ate it up.

@Assaye: My tank is a 20 gallon.

And thank you all for the welcomes. :]

 

[Assaye]

Oh gosh, I feel just terrible I've stressed him out. I'll take him back to the store tomorrow. Hopefully he'll find a better home.

It's night time now (tank light turned off) and he's swimming around some but not at all like the other fish. He was up in the left corner so I took a teensy bit of food, dropped it right above his head and he still wouldn't eat it. I guess it didn't help the other gourami came up and ate it up.

@Assaye: My tank is a 20 gallon.

And thank you all for the welcomes. :]

Might be OK in a 20 gallon but if you are worried, re-home or seperate him. Could be stressed for all sorts of reasons - maybe just the new environment. If you can't see any bullying going on, even when the lights are off, then you could try to keep them together and see if he settles. I'd get some advice from other gourami keepers though.

EDIT - the reason I say both are male is that female dwarf gouramis are very drab, usually a browny silver. The second photo does that that rounded dorsal fin but I have never seen a female dwarf gourami with vibrant colours like that.

 

[Carecalmo]

I have sad news. This morning I found the little fellow dead. I went to the LFS I got him from and had them test my water (just to make sure even though I had tested it myself). Everything was fine except my water was on the acidic side. The lady suggested he simply couldn't handle the shock of changing environments (going to the store and then going into my tank).

 

[OldMan47]

I am sorry to hear of your loss Carecalmo. It is always a bit sad to have a fish die when you know you might have been able to help more. As it turns out, the asian breeders can be considered at fault here. They are the ones who never allow a female gourami to arrive in the US. You, as a new fish keeper, had to assume that you were looking at a mixed sex tank in the pet shop.

 

[Assaye]

I am sorry to hear of your loss Carecalmo. It is always a bit sad to have a fish die when you know you might have been able to help more. As it turns out, the asian breeders can be considered at fault here. They are the ones who never allow a female gourami to arrive in the US. You, as a new fish keeper, had to assume that you were looking at a mixed sex tank in the pet shop.

I agree with this. The stress of moving and being put with another male might well have done it. Dwarf gouramis are also known to be fragile and prone to diseases.

In the UK we rarely see female dwarf gouramis. Even where I worked (at a pet shop) some of the staff thought that the blues were males and the oranges females.