Tropical Fish Forums

[Christi]

Hi! About two years or so ago I got myself a dwarf gourami for my 100L community tank, which was stocked mainly with guppies. I loved this little fish and decided to get another one. Soon after I introduced him to my tank, the first one started to get aggressive toward it and later the guppies. This got so bad that I had to give him away after he had pinned one of my guppies to the gravel and shredded him. All information that I've found about these guys states that they're peaceful, and the remaining gourami was perfectly behaved after the other left the whole time I had him.
I would really like to get two or so of these fish again, and was wondering if anyone has had similar experiences with them, and whether getting them at different stages had anything to do with the bullying.
Thanks!

[spartan plume]

Gouramis by nature are aggressive (the larger ones more so) but even smaller ones.

They have an aggressive hierarchical dominance social structure , which they will establish and maintain life long, this means chasing, flaring fins and play fighting, this is normal within the species.

When males are placed with other males or with females with more than one male aggression is higher.


With plenty of live planting which really is a must for gourami, (and isn't hard work at all) if the aquarium is filled with soft plants when chased the submissive gourami will not hurt itself and will be able to break the line of sight, then the aggressor will usually break off the chase.

As with the unfortunate incident with the guppy, some fish esp gouramis are just spiteful, it might have been just that individual . It also may be that adding females will be better rather than another male, three to one.

[Christi]

Thanks!

[unissuh]

Strongly recommend against getting more than a single dwarf gourami in that tank - I think it is very unlikely to work long term heavily planted or not. I hear a 4' long tank is the minimum one can reasonably expect two male dwarf gourami to CO2-habitate, have never had a tank that long but can certainly say it doesn't work in smaller tanks. They are territorial fish & placing two together will cause them to fight over who "owns" the tank. Two males is practically guaranteed to end up with one dead and in my experience male/female pairs don't have a high success rate either.

Getting them at different stages probably didn't help - the existing one would've thought the whole tank was his territory and the new fish was an unwelcome invader. As to the guppy shredding, changing the dynamics of the population in the tank sometimes does cause fish to act differently, even if it is changed back to how it was before - unpredictability is reasonably common in gourami/bettas.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[Topper]

[spartan plume]

[Christi]

[rales12]

[UncleWillie]

Spartan, do not take some of these responses as an attack. I see none of them as rude. A forum such as this, everyone is entitled to opinions.
In this case, it is true - spitefulness is indeed a human characteristic. Play fighting DOES exist in nature, but not with fish. You had the hierarchical social structure (or pecking order) correct. Fish with spar or fight for dominance, territory, etc., but not play fight like you see lion or bear cubs, etc.
Rales has a good point. One fish is fine in this tank, but the nature and size of these fish restrict any additional gouramis.
As mentioned by Topper, pygmy gouramis make a great fish, and may be more suitable in this tank.

[spoonemore]

Yes spartan, we knew what you meant.

May we all not get too into "parsing words." Myself included.
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Stuart