Male:female Ratio

[Cheese Specialist]

Hey,

I have a male and a female pearl gourami. I am wondering how many females I should have to one male. My female is doing ok at the moment and seems to shake off the male's advances pretty easily but I want to keep it this way by getting more females to ease any potential stress.

Any information appreciated.

D

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Can no one help?

I got another female yesterday and they all seem to be getting on. I would have got more but there was only one. I would get more though if it's needed...

Hmmm I am noticing some aggression not only between the male and females but between the females. I am guessing they are sorting out the pecking order as they are similar sized. Luckily the male gourami is busying himself making and tending a huge bubble nest. My first ever experience of that since my golden was female.

Any info would still be appreciated though.

 

[sylvia]

That's a typical pearl gouramir esponse to adding another female - the males almost always build a nest

You are correct about the female-female aggression. When you add a new gourami to an existing, established group, you ahve to expect some aggression while they sort out their hierarchy. It's not normaly an issue with pearls though luckily.

With other species, you can often experience the death of the newcomer at this point - which is why suddenly adding one to an established tank isn't a good idea unless you re-arange the tank, make sure the new fish is the same size as the existing ones and, if possible, add more than just one so that the aggression towards the new fish is split/diluted.

In the case of pearls, the sex ratio matters far less than it does with most other gourami species. Normaly, 2 or more females per male is reccomended (so yours are fine right now) but, with certain species, you shouldn't keep more than one male per tank (eg: betta splendens, paradisefish and most three-spots).

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Thanks for the reply.

I need the advice as gouramis aren't my main area of knowledge (only ever had one other which was one of my first fish).

My tank is fairly big and has a some plants (one of which is my red tiger lilly which my male has become rather attatched to!) and lots of wood. It's also a pretty dark tank so hopefully there's lots of places for the girls to retreat to.

I would have got more than one more female but there were no more and I thought one was better than none. They are very similar sized, I can only just tell who is who by fins not size.

The original gouramis have only been in the tank since just before New Year. I am doing a water change tomorrow so I might do a little rearranging at the same time.