Minus One Gourami

[tarheel]

Well I have had 2 male dwarf gourami's for about a month now and the one constanly beat the crap outta the other one, it was definatly the same aggressor all the time, so I took the timid one back to the store and kept the mean one, ( his coloring was better). So I figured he would calm down. well he will hardly come out of the plants now, only to feed which he did pretty well. this was just this morning, will it take him time to adjust or what??

 

[Ashli]

Hey there,

Gouramis don't do well on their own, I own 6 and all they're all hunky dory

The prefer to be in pairs/groups. I'd suggest you get a female dwarf gourami (they don't always breed unless you make their habitat ideal for breeding) a golden gourami, or platinum, one of the bigger gouramis. That should keep him happy, without you having to worry about him picking on the other much more bigger gourami

Hope that helped

Ashli

 

[sylvia]

Actualy, that's not a good idea at all.

Male dwarf gouramies will do fine on their own. They are territorial, and as you saw with the previous dwarf, will chase others of their kind away from their territory. He's nervous right now because of the sudden change in environment but he should eventualy get over it. Having small, peaceful schooling fish in the tank with him and/or lots of tall or floating plants, will encourage him to come out more. Similarly, make sure your filter isn't producing too strong a current and try enticing him out from time to time with some tasty live foods.

Seeing as you say this one is brighter than the timid one, you may even have had a female in with him before (females are silver - males are the colorful ones).

If you are interested in keeping some more dwarfs, then get 2 or more females. With two or more in there, his attention will be split between them so neither will be overly stressed. Particularly with dwarfs, this is extremely important as stress can easily lead to disease and, subsequently death.

Ashli, you have 6 gouramies - that's why you don't have problems. If you kept them as pairs, you certainly would have a problem - especialy if yours happen to be three-spots.

Also, don't try to keep a three-spot with your dwarf (or any of the three-spot color morphs - golds, blues, lavenders, platinums, cosby or opaline). Three-spots don't like other gouramies much and can be extremely aggressive towards smaller species. A three-spot would most certainly end up bullying your dwarf to death.

 

[tarheel]

thanks for the replys, they were definatly both males. what I meant by the coloring was that the male that I kept, his strips are nice and uniform and bright. while the other male had bright colors his were broken and zig-zag like, I think this one my be a better specimen. thats why I kept him. he is doing a little better now and is eating fine

 

[Greg13]

mmm i got two the other day, they seem to be setteling down a little now tho, when i turn off the aquarium light the aggressor changes, just hope when i get around ot putting some peacfull fish i nthere they will settle down, they seem to have sepperate sides of the tank so ill keep ya informed
Greg 8)

 

[Rynoah]

I've had no experience with dwarf gouramis, but my three-spot was also really timid when he was moved to his new tank. It's taken him a week to re-grow a pair, so to speak, and even now, one odd sound or vibration in the water will send him back into hiding. I also used to have an air pump set up for the tank, but in addition to the filter, it was creating too much turbulence, so I removed it. He was out and about a few days later.

 

[redtailblackshark]

Gourami's aren't very happy by themself. They need other gourami's to keep them company. I have 3 gourami's in total, but my blue goruami prefers to be by itself, while the gold and dwarf gourami stay together. But you should have at least three so they will keep each other company.

The first thing my gourami's did when they went into my 50 gal. tank was hide in the plants for about a day. After that they we're all over the tank, they just need to get used to the whole tank before they go exploring.