Pearl Trio

Majjie

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I have three pearl gouramis - I was aiming for two females and one male but the ones available in fish shops are so small, it's difficult to tell the difference, and I think I've ended up with two males and a female.

I originally had aggressive Minnie (in my avatar) and wimpy Malcolm who were bullying each other relentlessly. I got Mabel to spread the aggression (as recommended by Sylvia - the unreliable books all say to keep pairs :grr: ) - but Malcolm died (I think he had other problems than Minnie - he had three ventral fins/feelers and was always very skinny). Minnie then bullied Mabel mercilessly - so I got Michael, a young but assertive male. Everything went well for a while with Michael in charge - but then Minnie :rip: succumbed to a mystery bacterial infection that caused quite a few deaths amongst my fish in the summer.

That left assertive Michael to bully little Mabel - so I got Myrtle - and everything seemed fine for a while ......until I decided that I'd better rename Mabel - he's now called Marty!! :S

This is Michael
Michael1.jpg


This is Michael chasing Myrtle
MichMyrt2.jpg


This is Myrtle
Myrtle1.jpg


This is Marty
Marty2.jpg
Marty1.jpg


This is their tank - it's 70 litres (18.5 US gal). I've let the plants overgrow a bit in the hope that it'll reduce the aggression.
Tank2-2.jpg


Michael has established his territory in the top left of the tank and chases the other two out of it. Marty seems to take pleasure in irritating Michael by constantly straying into this territory (you can just see him approaching in the pic). Myrtle (wise girl) tries to keep out of it by staying under or behind the bog wood. All come out at feeding time and seem quite healthy and happy (much more active than Minnie and Malcolm were). Michael gets very very angry - but at the moment takes out his anger on the platys and the guppies. He charges at them releasing lots of bubbles from his gills. If the room is quiet you can hear him attack - even when you're not looking. The platys and guppies don't seem to be suffering though - they just get out of the way.

My questions are:

Are Michael and Marty both boys? They both have frilly ends to their anal fins (especially Michael) and long dorsal fins but neither show much colour (in the way that Malcolm did) and Michael has quite a deep body.

Is it usual for a pearl gourami to be so agressive to non gourami tank mates?

I'm planning to get a bigger tank and introduce two more females - but it won't be for a while yet. Are Michael and Marty likely to start some serious fighting soon?

Any opinions and suggestions welcome. Thanks
 
You do have two males :) Though I have to say the size of the pics makes it difficult to see them so I'm simply hoping I am good enough at this by now to be right lol.

Pearls aren't usualy aggressive towards other fish but then I don't ever keep them in an inverted trio like this. Generaly speaking, even defensive males won't ever actualy harm non-gouramies though he may well chase them off.

The main cause of your aggression is actualy the fact that you got these three at different times and they are all, from what I gather, at different stages of maturity/different sizes (eg you mentioned the ray extensions on one of the boys are more prominent). This can cause serious trouble until all grow to the same size and is the reason I'm always saying to add gouramies two at a time (though I tend to be more lenient with pearls) and to look for fish of the same size.

The fact that these two males have to 'compete' in a situation with only one female is likely to be making them more aggressive than usual (not just towards each other) as they will naturaly feel their position is mroe threatened and the dominant will naturaly become more territorial.
I think that adding another couple of females would pretty much solve this problem though. If you have room (in terms of stocking as opposed to simply volume) to add another couple (or better yet 3) females, I say go for it. Pearls are sociable (even if they don't appear it right now) and the female will especialy benefit from other females' company. Do remember to get fish that are about the same size as your existing fish.

I should add that in some cases you can get particularly aggressive pearls. I had one once that realy was 'evil' :p I couldn't keep him with any other gouramies though he was ok with a few otos and things. Having said that, I don't believe this is the case here and some simple re-arangement of sex ratios and hierarchies should solve the problem.

Meanwhile, re-arange the tank and make sure the current in the tank is uniform through-out. The change in environment will force the fish onto 'equal ground' and give both males the opportunity to establish seperate territories. They naturaly preffer areas with less current so ensuring the whole tank is the same will mean they're more likely to pick spots at opposite ends. I can see your tank is well-planted (very nice BTW :thumbs: ) but the mroe floating plants you can get, the better. Again, make sure there are some at both ends of the tank. Also check your temperature. Lowering this (to a minnimum of about 77 deg F) VERY gradualy, will decrease aggression in gouramies most of the time.

In terms of fighting. It's unlikely the two males will get into a real battle. This only happens with fish that are equaly matched. In a case like this, the larger/older fish will simply chase off the smaller. I appreciate the smaller one seems to be provoking him but I wouldn't expect them to actualy engage in a serious fight. In the wlld, serious fights can mean death - if you can clearly see you aren't going to win, you don't bother trying. If they do start fighting for whatever reason, you'll simply have to seperate them (though, like I said, a serious fight is unlikely even if they do have some brief scraps to re-establish dominance - particularly if you do re-arange the tank like I suggested).
 
Thanks Sylvia - you do give wonderful replies :D

I'm afraid I've always been trying to improve a bad situation with these pearls (two of them have always been fighting, or one has died :sad: , and I've added a third to try to improve things) - that's why they are all at different ages/sizes. It seems to be very rare that lfs's have anything other than babies. For both Marty and Myrtle I drove for miles and visited a number of shops to find the largest ones I could. And Marty was on his own - fattening up - for a few months before I put him in with the others.

I will have a go tomorrow at re-arranging the tank and re-directing the filter flow. Michael's territory is, indeed, in the area with the least flow. I also have floating plants in other tanks I could add.

I don't think I could add two more females - unless I moved some of the guppies/platys out. I'll have a think about re-arranging some of the other tanks. If I could re-house some of the tank mates would it be ok to have five pearls in an 18.5 US gal tank? Doesn't give them much swimming space each. It could be five or six months before I can afford the bigger tank.
 
:) I understand the situation with the pearl sizes - it can be very difficult to find LFSs that stock older fish. I get realy annoyed sometimes when I want to buy fish that are old enough to breed already or want to stock a large tank with adult fish.

Anyway, it probably would be best to avoid adding 5 pearls to an 18 gallon though it would be ok for a short period (not realy for months though). What you could do instead is find another tank to move one of the males into temporarily (by rearanging your stock around a bit). The female might still get chased around by the remaining male but the tension in the tank should still decrease a little while you get the larger tank.

Do try all the other things I mentioned first though - you may find this reduces the aggression long enough for you to have a chance to get the larger tank. Then 5 pearls would be lovely ;)
 

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