Honey gourami breeding behavior -- is this flirting or aggression?

[noahm]

So I have a male honey gourami that about monthly decides that his favorite red-racer nerite snail is either a potential lady-friend, or an adversary. I don't know breeding behavior, so I was hoping someone could chime in. Is he trying to warn-off the snail, or is this dancing? In any case, we joke that he is blindly in love with the snail.

See video below. This can go on for days. He will spend most of the day doing this. You can't see the snail, but it is a red and yellow striped red-racer nerite.

 

[GaryE]

So, the behaviour is aggression, to me. He is reacting to the colour of the snail, seeing it as a challenge.

That is a 'hobby' honey gourami. For ages, the name was applied to Trichogaster chuna, and since it was a nice name, when the hybrids came along, it was transferred to help market the new creations. So it is one of several different gourami hybrids sold as honeys, but its behaviour may not go with any reading you do on the species, as that one isn't a biological species. It's a human made form, as much as that matters.

I used to breed chuna/honeys, and had lots of males. That's what I base saying the love story sadly doesn't track.

 

[noahm]

Thanks, Gary. I suspected it could be either. That said, none of it makes me think he is too bright.

He was supposed to be a generic. I specifically didn't want a sunset hybrid, but he was very small and in the tank next to the sunsets labeled as a regular. Obviously mislabeled, but pretty.

 

[MattW]

I had the exact same thing with my old betta . My zebra Nerite used to go into the top left corner which was her spot as she could see the PC monitor and myself from that area. My best memory was watching a football match which my betta watched too, only this one time the nerite thought it would be a good idea to set up shop there. Let's just say that snail ended up with one antenna shorter than the other.

 

[noahm]

I have never seen any actual aggression, so I think this one's eyes are safe for now.