Honey Gourami Help

[Craig83]

Hi all, I've had my 30 gallon tank set up for around 3 months now and about a month ago I added 4 honey gourami. I believe 3 females and 1 male (but not 100% certain).
Recently the male has decided that the top left area of the tank belongs to him and he's quite aggressively chasing the other 3 if they come anywhere near it. He's cool with the other fish in the tank.
My question is should I just leave them to it as they're establishing a pecking order or is this something to be concerned about? I don't want a tank bully who's going to cause stress. The other 3 gourami get on fine, swimming together occasionally and just generally behaving peacefully.
The tank also contains 12 ember tetra, 6 panda corys, 1 bristlenose pleco and 2 assassin snails.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Craig83]

Also, I've tried to attach a picture of the tank but it doesn't seem to be working. It's quite heavily planted, 2 pieces of driftwood and a couple of caves. I have almond leaves and alder cones in there for the brown look.

 

[DoubleDutch]

It is probably maturing and decided to use this place to build a bubblenest. If there is enough space for the other to run to and swim normally I'd leave it. When he is ready he'll lure one (ot more) female under the nest to spawn and then chase them away again.

 

[Craig83]

Brilliant, thank you for putting my mind at ease a bit. The others have plenty of room to escape to and he leaves them alone when they're not in his little territory.
My first time owning gourami so I'm learning as I go along.

 

[Naughts]

Are you sure you have the honey gourami, Trichogaster chuna?
It gets confusing as dwarf gouramis and thick-lipped gouramis are labelled as 'red honey' etc. These species are both more territorial.

 

[Craig83]

Hi, managed to upload the pictures from my pc. That's my tank, a photo of the bully and a photo of two of the peaceful ones. Can you tell if they're really Honeys? Hard to get a really good photo of them because they're always on the move

 

[Back in the fold]

You have what you have so that's that but Honey Chuna's are one of those fish that should be in a species only aquarium .

 

[Craig83]

Ahh right, why is that? I done a lot of research before choosing them and hadn't seen that mentioned anywhere.

 

[sharkweek178]

Ahh right, why is that? I done a lot of research before choosing them and hadn't seen that mentioned anywhere.

I wouldn't say that they need to be in a species only tank, but you have to be pretty choosy for tankmates. Honey gouramis are a very mild mannered fish. So you can't have them with overly aggressive or fin nippers or overly active tank mates. Also, some fish like to have some current in the tank. Honeys need calmer waters.

 

[Craig83]

Yeah that's what I'd read and the reason I chose Ember Tetras and Panda Corys. The Bristlenose Pleco was a refugee from another tank but she's super timid.
The chasing seems to have calmed down a bit now anyway

 

[GaryE]

What you have are not T. chuna. The trade name game got you there - you have one of the probably T labiosa. It's a "name hijack", as chuna are sweet, small gouramis that lose their colour when stressed. T chuna are the "honey gourami" you read about. They don't sell well as their beauty only comes out when they have been in your tank for a bit. The possible labiosa hybrids (or test tube colour forms, or linebred colour forms - it's a trade secret) are bigger, rougher and more aggressive, and the tacking the name of a well known but hard to find species onto them helps sales. There's a wealth of info on honey gouramis, and you probably looked it up and learned about the behaviour of the fish that had the name for 50-60 years.

You still have a nice, slightly larger fish though. You're describing what happens as they grow up.

I used to breed T. chuna, and had a lot of them as a result. I disagree with the single species tank comment, although I always like to keep fish that way. They do fine in communities.

In the way of the world, I co-wrote a book on gouramis 20 or so years ago. A few months after publication, the Asian farms released a wave of genetically modified gouramis onto the market, and swept away the natural species aquarists had loved for generations. Neon blue, red, fake honey gouramis, unrecognizeable forms of T lalia - the situation in stores changed rapidly, and what I wrote about became obsolete info (for marketers) before the ink had dried. The renaming of honeys was part of that commercial process.

 

[Craig83]

Hi Gary, thank you for taking the time to write such an informative post. I'll have a good read up on t. labiosa when I finish work today. I'm not too fussed about the fish store getting the species incorrect because I love the little things regardless.