Gourami issues

[Alien Anna]

Hi,
I have four young pearl gouramis in my 110L tank, which I know is too many. I believe I have two males and two females. The largest is about 8cms currently.

One of the males is very aggressive, particularly to the other male, but he is a beautiful specimen. He is boss of the tank.

The other male is relatively peaceful at the moment. The larger female is harrassed by the "alpha male", but not as much as the "beta male" is. The smaller female, however, is somewhat harrassed by everybody (I've even seen a pencilfish have a go at her). She is under-sized, regularly spotting minor injuries and hides all the time (she's the fish I tried to help by putting her in with my betta, but he went crazy and terrified her).

I suspect I should re-home the alpha male, but would the other male then take over his reign of terror? And should I also re-home the harrassed female, or is she likely to settle down once her main persecutor has gone?

How many gouramis should I keep in a tank this size?

 

[Rose]

First off Pearls are a fairly peacefull fish. However since you have 2m/2f you are in for some dead fish. Pearls can get nasty when they want to mate. If I were you I would either get rid of the 2f and get 2 more males, or get rid of the nasty pearl and keep the rest. They should be fine with lots of cover and places to call "home". That's not always the way it works. As always you will have to keep an eye on them no matter wich way you go with them.

If things get nasty between them you can always do a large water change and change the deco around. This will make them re-establish territories and may make them play nice. Just a few thoughts for now. Rose