Normal Honey Gourami Behaviour?

[noodles]

I have 2 honey gourami's and over the last day one has taken to hiding at the bottom of the tank in a small cave. Every so often it swims up to the surface and gulps some air then goes back down again. It appears to be fine and looks ok when it does this, except it does seem to have to constantly flick its tail to stay level when swimming about. Any ideas?

 

[Ethos]

Well, your 10G is very over stocked.
Is it the heat? It sounds like your water is too hot for your Gourmis liking, so I'd suggest turning the temp down.
Temp is good at about 78-80F

 

[sylvia]

Do you have 2 males? Considering your tank is crowded, it may be a territoriality thing. You should think about getting yourself a larger tank.

 

[noodles]

Is this really over stocked? I dont believe it is. I am talking UK 10 Gallons, ember tetras are half the size of neons, and rockets are also the same size. It looks about perfect to me?

But as you can see from another post, I am having big trouble at the moment since introducing 2 new female gouramis. Everything has been perfect for a while now.

 

[sylvia]

I wasn't actualy talking about over-stocking (though it is somewhat). I said it's crowded. Gouramies like honeys preffer to spend their time in the uppermost layers of the tank. This means that, in a small volume (even if it is UK gallons), you'll get aggression and territoriality issues if you have more than one male and certainly if you have other top-dwelling fish like panchax. Introducing new gouramies to an established gourami group is also bound to result in trouble as the newcomers are viewed as 'intruders'. This kind of aggression generaly settles down after a while but territoriality issues arising from lack of space can be long-term problems and need to be addressed. At the very least, if you have mroe than one male, re-home them, keeping only a single male and some females. Also add some extra floating plants or other hiding places - near the top - to increase the number of territories and make conflicts less likely to occur.