Please Help!

[LittleL]

My boyfriends dad went and got two gouramis for there very large tank (there quite large gouramis, i think there pearl gouramis.. they have a few black spots along there back and have little silver dots all over there lower body.. very pretty!)

Anyway, im guessing he has brought a female and a male, because one of the gouramis (which i believe is the male) keeps chasing the other gourami (the female?)... she gets so scared and annoyed that she just stays behind the filter all day and night and as soon as she comes out from behind the filter for a second, the other gourami chases her back behind it and keeps pestering her.. so she just stays behind the filter all the time. i feel sorry for her and she dont look to happy in there... im afraid she might die.

Please help.. what can i do? shall i take her back to the lfs or would getting another gourami help, so that the male attention is split between two females? i've heard that keeping them in trios is better....

please help... im very new to all this, so still learning (as you can probably guess!)

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

Are you sure its female the other one? they are easy to sex once they get to be a decent size. If it is female adding another will help with the aggression, it its male you have the choice of adding 4 females if the tank is big enough or returning it to the shop. In the mean time if you add lots of plants, the one that is hiding should come out more and the male won't spot it quite as easily.

Emma

 

[sylvia]

Are you certain they are pearls? It does sound like they are - but just to make sure

How big is your tank and what other fish are in it? Pearl gouramies are not normaly aggressive - especialy not when they've only just been added to the tank. If you realy do have aggressive fish in an adequately sized tank, you've likely stumbled upon a particularly moody individual. Getting a couple more females would help if you have a male/female pair. Otherwise, I'd suggest returning the more aggressive fish to your LFS.

BTW, if you need your fish sexed or identified, post some side-on pics. If they are decent-sized pearls, they would be quite easy to sex.