The Problem with Gouramis...

[moe_1]

Who has ever had this: I dont actually have any Gouramis now, but heres the thing. You buy two blues or two golds, and after a while for no apparent reason one of them thinks its a great idea that the other ones fins taste good.

AND THEN HE WILL KEEP ON NIBBLING ON THE OTHER ONES FINS! you will see that hes not even chasing the other one away, hes just biting him. then u see that the smaller one's (usually) fins go a lighter tint... untill they disapear all together. Then the smaller one's fins rot off, and good bye fishy.

This has happened to me so many times its wierd, you go out buy two fish, they grow a bit, then start killing each other. it has also happened to my friends' dads' gouramis.

IF stuff like this happens do tell... does anyone know why? i pretty much dbout it would happen if you had say 3-4 of them.

 

[dark_tyger]

I have noticed that several species of gourami's will be more aggresive than others. Mine chase each other around the tank all the time, but they never physically hurt one another...usually. My guess is that you had all males and they were being territorial. Next time find someone who knows the difference, and get 3 females and 1 male. Then you will hopefully have better luck.

 

[Eleonora]

I have a male and a female dwarf honey gourami in a 22L tank together. The male always chases the female, but since my tank is filled with plants, there are lots of places for her to hide and rest. So maybe what you need is lots of hiding places for the chasee to hide from the chaser.

 

[juliethegr8t]

You're right that gouramis will usually be much less aggressive in a larger group. In pairs or triples even, they display the behavior you have observed. Sometimes it's due to too small of a tank, and other times it's just plain aggressive gouramis. We have to remember they are relatives of bettas!! It is recommended that you keep a large group of gouramis if at all possible - then any specified aggression will be spread out among more fish.

 

[OscarCichlid]

Right now i have 2 Male Blue Gouramis, 1 Male Gold Gourami, and 1 Female Opaline Gourami. I bouth them when i knew nothing about them (i know a big mistake) but now i know alot about gouramis and swarf gouramis. My gouramus constantly have ripped fins and are getting seriously injured (I had a kissing gourami in the tank and they bit a hole right through him, he survived but now only lays on the bottom of the tank (after i moved him to another tank), they also bit a hole right through my male paradise gourami and completely swallowed the female) One thing i dont know is,, If i buy a few more Gouramis will there aggression lower??? (i know that in a cichlid tank you could have 1 or many is it the same with gouramis??) Also if there aggression level will go down with many gouramis in the tank, should i add males or females???