she's flaring then attacking :-s

[rsz]

some of you may have read that my male dwarf gourami died . well the girl was left by herself , so today i toddled out to get a new lil guy B) . i was successful, so i toddled back with mr dwarf gourami and started to float him. she was flaring at him the whole time!!! then i released him, and as he explored, she followed him, flaring and bumping into him (i can only assume she was very keen... ) ). but then she turned mean, and now she flares up to him then tries to bite him only he sort of dodges her. well, it looks like she's trying to bite him anyway. is it normal? she used to avoid the old guy so i never saw her try to nibble him.

.s he's so sweet, a neon blue dwarf gourami, just like her - they look nice together ... when she isn't being mean.

 

[rsz]

just remembered something else about them - when she's flaring and following him around, she sort of floats almost so that she's lying down , then she swims off all normal again . is she just being a giddy, although slightly temperamental, lil fish , or is something wrong with her???


thank you for any replies...

 

[FanOFish]

Dwarf gouramis are indeed strange little fish. I have two in my tank, both males..one is blue the other a flame.

They take turns going at each other. One will be swimming along then suddenly take off and nip at the other, who in turn reverses and goes right back at the attacker and they do this every night after dinner.

Occasionally they will try it with the larger Pearl gourami who does in fact swim away but is probably more annoyed than anything else. They have been doing this for a long time and don't seem to do any real harm to one another. At first I thought they were trying to defend their little territories but often you will see them swimming together lile old friend.