What Does It Mean?

[proton]

Hi All,

I have 6 Gouramis 2 Gold, 2 Blue and 2 Pearl.

In this week I saw the 2 gold Goaramis "playing" with each other, the male used to chase the female endlessly but now he seems to leave her alone, and in this week I saw him and her twirling around each other, and then the male kept poking her with his mouth on her side, and she was not bovvered with this. He was not hurting her by looks of it. This behaviour has been seen before with them. Does anyone know if this is some mating ritual?

Then there is my 2 Pearl Gourami's they seem to have the same behaviour except that they also are "kissing". They have their mouths nibbling at each other's, is this normal as they are not Kissing Gouarami's?

 

[sylvia]

'Kissing' is aggressive. It can cause a lot of stress and can lead to injury and/or disease. If they are doing this often, you should consider rehoming them or getting more (how large is your tank and what fish and how many are in it?).

The 'poking' is not a 'mating ritual' - probably the male trying to persuade the unwilling female to spawn. However, the 'twirling' is often seen during spawning and is known as a nuptial embrace. Normaly, the male will have built a bubblenest at this point and he'll entice the female under it where he then raps his body round her and she releases eggs which, as they float to the surface, he fertilises.

BTW, blue and gold gouramies are the same species - just different color morphs. They are collectively called 'three-spot gouramies'. Just wanted to point out that the blue fish could spawn with the golds just as easily as the two golds could spawn with each other (assuming the sexes are right of course!).

 

[proton]

Well I have 30 tetras, 1 krib, 2 angel fish, 1 common pleco, 2 clown loaches, 6 khulie loaches, 7 cory's, 1 ghost knife, 1 paradasie fish and the tank is a 240L tank. The "kissing" was only seen recently and they did that before they "twirled".

Thanks for the info about the Blue and Gold gouramis, if I had know that before i bought them I would have gotten all females and 1 male. I do keep a keen eye on all my fish to see if their behaviour changes...

 

[sylvia]

How long have you had this tank set up? I have to say that I see a disaster waiting to happen... Angels and gouramies (and that includes paradisefish BTW) rarely get on once the angels start pairing up because they compete for territory. This is all well with less aggressive gourmies - but three-spots and paradisefish don't back down. Actualy, keeping three-spot withs paradisefish is also a bad idea and male three-spots can fight each other to the death. When gouramies are kept in conditions such as these where they need to compete for space, they become more aggressive.

The tetras are also going to get eaten - if not by the angels that prey on them naturaly in the wild, then by the ghost knife. I should add that you are lucky you have quite a large tank as this reduces all the other problems but the clown loaches and plec are eventualy going to need something even larger.

I appreciate that you are watching your fish carefuly etc but your gouramies are already showing aggression. Are you going to do anything about this?

About the 'twirling', did they look like this? http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/spawn1.jpg (These are bettas BTW). These two are spawning. If they were actualy circling each other instead, they were fighting aggressively.

 

[proton]

Well I have had them just over 3 months now, the Ghost Knife fish is 4" long Still small, I will take her back to the fish shop when she gets bigger, the two angel fish seem fine, they don't seem to chase the tetras, they seem to ignore them.

The paradise fish seems to just hang around, it does try to chase some of the other fish, but seems to do it half heartedly, no actually fighting.

Only the biggest Blue Gourami is the "bossy" one, seems to chase the other gourami's around, but he seems to do this after I have fed them.

I thought pearl gourami's were friendlier? The angel fish seem to be different from each other... One has zebra stripes on it and very long tails, the other is black and tails are short, and has a pointier snout.

The twirling was similar but I can't see any bubble nest. I doubt one will be built as I have too many fish in there... I feed them all blood worms every night.... (one block) and flakes in the morning...

 

[sylvia]

You won't have trouble with the angels untill they are fully grown. Also, if you are lucky enough to have two of the same sex, you may not have to deal with serious aggression between them and the gouramies.

Yes, pearls are generaly more peaceful than three-spots but can become aggressive when not kept in the right environment. They also tend to do better in larger groups as they are quite social and without other gouramies to compete with. What sexes are yours?

 

[proton]

thanks sylvia, they are suppsed to be 3 female and 3 male, i.e. one of each... my two pearl gourami's are "kissing" again but not to seriously, the female looks a little fat? what does fat mean? does she have any eggs in her? he is now doing something funny in the corner where I have my floating plants, what does a bubble nest look like?

 

[sylvia]

Do you mean the females are plump just behind the gill area? This means they are gravid (full of eggs) and is normal.
Search for 'betta bublenest' on http/www.google.com (images). Bettas build the same sort of nest as three-spot or pearl gouramies but there are always more betta pictures out there.
The pearls should not be fighting on a regular basis. If you can get 2-3 mroe females (adult-sized), the aggression should stop. You may still have trouble with your three-spots though (especialy if they spawn).

 

[proton]

yes she is a little plump around the edges, i might get rid of my 1 of my gold/yellow male gourami's and get a femal pearl.so that would make 1 male to two femals of each. would that calm then down a bit?

 

[sylvia]

That might help but the new female might be bullied at first - especialy if she is smaller than the exiting gouramies. You can avoid this problem by rearaning the tank's decor and getting a large female. Alternatively, getting 2 instead of just one would prevent any such problems.