Is this normal?

[gaya]

I found a female gourami yesterday in a small lfs and just had to get her as they are hard to find where i live. I thought getting girl for my male gourami would make him happy. when i first put her in the tank he started chasing and ramming his nose into her and she booked it across the tank (30g). Today he has built a huge nest and she was under it with him for awhile and then he would chase her again. I've heard there should be at least two females per male but I'm unsure about that. Is this normal? Is he supposed to be this aggressive? He wasn't this bad with the other male I had in there for awhile.

 

[sylvia]

Umm - what kind of gourami?

It is usualy best to get at least 2 females but this isn't absolutely necessary. The problem you are having is that your male has already staked out his territory and now you have added another gourami. Re-aranging the tank might help a little, but because the new addition is female, he may eventualy start chasing her around again. Adding another female could help but, again, re-arange the tank first. Also add some more cover for the female to retreat to. He may or may not eventualy settle down. If he doesn't you may need to remove her or add more females (introduce at least 2 gouramies at a time or you'll have the same problem with the new arrivals as your current 2 will concentrate all aggression on a single one).

 

[gaya]

he's a blue dwarf gourami and she's a female dwarf as well. Why isn't he trying to whoo her? He's building a huge bubble nest though. It's really wide and thick and he's just going house on it. I was assuming that he is doing this because she is there. Is that not the case?

edit: also, there are a ton of hiding places in this tank but she's choosing to stay closer to where he is than she has to. But she's hanging on the bottom of the tank while he's up top working.

 

[sylvia]

The bubblenest does mean he's trying to get her to breed but she may not be ready or stressed because she was only just added. You see, in the wild the male would establish a territory and females would just wander around pretty much freely. When a female ready to breed stumbles into a male's territory, he builds his bubble nest and they spawn. He then chases her away. If the females is not ready to breed, he'll just chase her away and wait for the next one to come along but he'll probably try to get her to spawn a few times first before he decides to give up. As your fish are dwarfs, there's no real danger (I mean the male is unlikely to actualy kill the female) so just leave them and they should eventualy settle down. Adding another female and re-aranging the tank would still help (re-aranging is only temporary usualy though). Do consider another for long-term if they don't settle down within the next week. Do keep a close eye on them just in case the female appears particularly stressed.

 

[gaya]

Thanks as usual slyvia. I'm not even feeding them tonight cuz his nest is stuck to the top cover. Gosh it's at least a half inch thick!

If there were two females I would have bought them both but she was by herself. You are right that she probably needs to settle in. She just got here and he's all uppity on her. She's actually hanging out on the other side of the tank with my angel pair now and they dont seem to mind. My angels and gourami have territories on either side of the tank. The angels have eggs at least three or four times now so they seem comfortable with the situation. Though they chase him away when he gets to close to the eggs. Now he's chasing everyone away from his nest.