Pearl Gouramis Fighting

[thebadseed]

I originally bought 2 Pearl Gouramis (1 male, 1 female) when I had my tank set up for a week, them seemed fine and happy. The female sadly died 4 weeks ago (I think from a fungal disease, I have treated the tank and all the other fish seem fine, healthy and active). At the weekend I bought a new female, thinking that the male would be happier with a mate in there, but he has not stopped chasing and bullying the female, to the extent that she rarely comes out of hiding apart from to feed. I also have 2 Black phantom tetras and 4 neon tetras. The tank has been set up for 9 weeks, water quality is fine. Tank size is 64 litre and heated to 25 degrees. I have 3 live plants, a few corals and a cave. Will he settle down or have I made a grave mistake? Would it help if there was another female Gourami in there to help divide his attention?

 

[Reesy1989]

Would it help if there was another female Gourami in there to help divide his attention?

Typically at the worst the ratio for male to female should be 1-2 but at best it should be 1-3. can you get a pic of your tank so we can see how well planted it is? The more plants in there the more obstacles in the way to break up the males vision and hence the less fighting and the female will come out more.

 

[thebadseed]

Hi here's a picture of the tank, hope it's big enough!

 

[Reesy1989]

Tank is big enough, although if I were you I put alot more plants in there. It needs to be quite dense at the back and have some swimming room at the front. The skull, is it hallow? If so that will prob be used as a hiding spot, if its not then you could make a hiding spot using bogwood or something just so that the weaker one will have sumwhere to hide from being harrassed. This way there is less chance of the fish get way to stressed and getting ill.

Nice tank tho. What size is it? 10g?

 

[thebadseed]

The tank is 64 Litres, I think that equates to around 10 Gallons. The skull is hollow, but it seems to be soley used by the male Gourami. Thanks for the advice on planting. I was also thinking about geting some floating plants.

 

[Reesy1989]

Floating plants are good. Gouramis do like the floating plants. Basically the more plants in there the beeter. Gouramis do better in planted tanks

good luck

 

[thebadseed]

Cheers again. The male now seems to have accepted the female and peace has broken out in the tank again.

 

[markandhisfish]

sexing the gouramis when young can be tricky as the males long dorsal fin and rays on the anal fin take time to develop i got 3 meant to be 1 male/2 females at the time they looked like females ( shorter rounder dorsal fin) but now mature and fully coloured up its clear that i do in fact have 3 males