Tiger Brab Trouble

[ghostknife597]

I have a 55 gallon with many fish, including 8 tiger barbs. i see them locking lips and apparently wrestling. are they just fighting for dominance? Also, for anyone familiar with Opaline gouramis, why does my male always chase the female? i got on of each sex in hopes that they wouldn't fight, but he has turned into a real bully. any help is appreciated. thanks

 

[drobbyb]

That lip locking behavior is indeed dominance. Not sure on the gouramis however.

 

[ghostknife597]

ok thanks. one of my TB females is definitely gravid, do you think i should move her to my smaller tank with the most likely to be dominant male? they apparently lay only a few eggs at a time and are fertilized by the male, and i feel like i'd never be able to get any TB fry from the 55g to my fry tank before they were eaten.

 

[Rezatii]

I'm not an expert on gourami but I think the general rule is to have 2females for every male? I'm not sure, but maybe thats it, like how male guppies bother females I guess. *shrugs*

 

[waterdrop]

Opalines, blues, three-spot all basically the same fish and they are nearly always pretty extreme bullies in my experience (have kept all these in the past.) It is true that 2 females to one male is often tried as a way to sometimes promote more balanced behavior, but I don't have direct experience observing whether this would successfully work with Opalines (I'd be quite interested to hear if anyone has observed this!)

One extra problem you have with all gouramis (and bettas as well) is that they are a fish that will display individual personalities.. but this is not as big a factor as just the fact that the opees, blues/3spots are mean fish! Environments with fish that are bigger than them and good floating plant coverage are both things I'd think might possibly help the male gourami behave a little better but I can't say that for sure.

~~waterdrop~~