Three Spot Gourami

[Lisa-Jayne]

I have two,Three-spot gourami.
There used to be three of them but one died,since then one of the fish has became very aggressive towards the other,the fish that he is aggressive towards has changed color to a real dark brown /gray with stripes.
Im not realy sure if the fish are male of female,but the darker one is realy picked on and often ends up hiding all the time.
Oh the bully fish has a slight blue to his underside fins so i was wondering if he was male?

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

You may well have two males. What shape is their upper fin? If it is long and pointed then they are male. If it's shorter and rounded they're female. Either way you need to seperate them to stop one being killed by the other.
Hugs,
P.

 

[Lisa-Jayne]

You may well have two males. What shape is their upper fin? If it is long and pointed then they are male. If it's shorter and rounded they're female. Either way you need to seperate them to stop one being killed by the other.
Hugs,
P.

I have separated them,cause it was getting a bit violent,didnt want to watch a poor little fish be killed.i put a tank devision up for now till i get more aquarium space. The brown color fish must be a female it has a rounded fin,cant see the other at the moment cause its got its fin down,i will look later.
Thanks for letting me know the differences.
best wishes x

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Lisa-jayne

This is one of the problems people seem to have with gouramis. They are territorial and males are sometimes very aggressive toward each other. You might find, however, that even if the less dominant one is a female, the male might still treat her badly.

In any case, the only thing you can do is keep them apart. If you don't, it will eventually result in the death of the weaker one. This might not only be from the aggression itself, but sometimes the stress that results can weaken the fish's immune system and leave it more subject to contacting diseases.

Be wary too of the gourami chasing your other fish. They will sometimes do that.

If you would like to keep two gouramis in your tank, two females of equal size will usually get along fine.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Another possibly option is to have more then one female...assuming one of the ones you have is female. A pair or trio of females with the male will normally be fine although you may get aggression towards other tankmates if they spawn.
Hugs,
P.