Pearl Gourami

[markandhisfish]

i have 1 male pearl gourami and 2 females in my tank the male had been gettin very aggressive so i seperated him moved around a few plants etc then after about 3 days in solitary i returned him to the tan to see if there was any change. immediately he and 1 of the females began to behave oddly...... they are staying side by side twisting aroiund each other almost pecking at each other then they really started grabbing at each other and had hold of each other as they sank to the bottom of the tank where they rubbing up against each other and biting though im sure i saw scales fly neither appear to be hurt.... are they fighting or getting frisky what shgould i do??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

they're getting frisky

put some barry white on and dim the lights


you do need to be careful to watch them though, if the male is constantly harassing the females then that'll realy stress them out. just once ina while is fine though

 

[markandhisfish]

lol @ barry white!!!! but i thought the male should be bubble nesting?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

depending on the flow in the tank he may have tried and failed. the twisting round each other definatley sounds like mating to me.

 

[markandhisfish]

ok thanks i have got a power head in there so there is quite a bit os surface aggitation, if he cant buid the nest then what?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

not sure tbh, i'm not a gourami breeding expert. just know vaguley what their breeding behaviour is like.

yeah if you've a lot of surface agitation then any attempts at a bubble nest will be gone

 

[markandhisfish]

ok the powerhead drives my filter (stone age ugf to be replaced in new tank soon) maybe i could try taking off the air hose as the water flow from powerhead still give a certain ammount of aggitation that shoulkd hopefully be enough to oxygenate water. whats your opinion?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

do you activley want to breed the gouramis?

 

[markandhisfish]

i hadnt actualy planned it i just think if it happens woiuld be interesting to see what happens, if they want to breed i shoulkd allow it to happen plus it woulkd be fascinating to watch

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok, if thats the case then you would need to let him build a bubble nest so need to reduce surface agitation, but if the powerhead is powering your filter then you obviously need the filter to keep running,

 

[markandhisfish]

the powerhead is combined basicly its a maxijet it pumps water through the filter and has a seperate pipe for air so it can still drive filter witrhout blowing bubbles