Male Dwarf Gourami

[Matthew5664]

Hi need some help with my Gourami he's getting a bit aggresiv toward the other fish. He is housed with 1 betta 9 platties and 12 tetras. He was the last fish to go inm, along with a female. He stated fin but after 3-4 days he got all aggresive . What up with him??? He also spits water at me when i go to feed them! Last nite i put him in the quaureteen tank as punishment lefe him the night and put him back this moprning but to no afect!! Any Answers anyone?? Was thinking about getting another female?






36x12x18
120 liter
7.5ph
26.5 C

 

[Clairel]

I think they can be quite terratorial, i also have a blue dwarf male, he is fine though, maybe you should think of getting him 2 female friends? 2 females are better than 1 as he wont pick constantly at 1 female for love lol

C x

 

[annka5]

I'd say another female if you've the space.
They spit water to catch flies at water surface, so is perfectly normal to do it whenever they thing food is coming -looks like he's learnt you're the food-monster-creature! Don't think its anything personal, though.

 

[Firebelle_uk]

Awww I think the water spitting sounds sooo cute.
When I got my female dwarf gourami the chap told me the female had died a few weeks earlier but as I was getting some red honey gouramis at the same time I offered to take her as hse looke pretty forlorn all alone, and he promised to get me anpther male asap. Well imagine my excitement two weeks later when he had another male. I couldn;t wait to get him in the tank with her, and he was so handsome etc. Anyway to cut a long story short she couldn't care less about him, they bristled their fins at one another when they first met which I took to me "Hey gorgeous look at me" and appears to have been, "come witin six inches and you're breakfast "lol. They do occassionally brush past one another and then he will trun toward her and try and give her a nip, but I cana't see love blooming there. They even sleep at opposite ends of the tank. On the other hand she does appear to follow my male swordtail?. My Pearl Gouramis are insperable and far from the little nips the dwarf gourami hands out,when the female and male Pearls are close and appear to "nip" it is so gentle I'm sure it's a fishy caress. Thankfully none of the gouramis seems bothered by other fish in the tank

 

[Matthew5664]

I defanatley think that an other female is the way to go, Gonna get another one on the way home tonight thanks for the info. As for the spitting if he does that in the wild to catch food do you think that he is wild courght of tank bread???

 

[SkiFletch]

From what I'm told and my own personal experience, Dwarf Gouramis and Bettas do not mix... They are both from the Family Anabantoid and as such, males of the same species hate each other. Have you noticed the two of them going at it? My I tried what you have done and the dwarf literally killed my betta. I'm told by people here and by my LFS that it CAN work, but often times does not work out. Perhaps the presence of the two are getting him all fired up which he might take out on other fish, not just the betta.

Just some food for thought...

 

[Matthew5664]

The betta doesnot seem bother at the moment the dwarf stays out of his way!! I was thinking of moving the betta to my 40 liter and get a female to breed

 

[SkiFletch]

That might help. Why not try removing the betta and seeing if the Dwarf calms down in the community tank?

 

[Matthew5664]

The other female went in last night and you'll never guess. Now we have a chain of bullying going on!! The male chaces the old female and the old female chaces the new female. AGHHHHHH!!!! Why can't thay all get along! As for the betta I think he's not much do do with the proplem, Theres not much interaction with them. Nor the Platies for that matter!?! I'll try taking the betta out for a while see if that calms things down but if not the Gori's may have to go Could anyone recoment any other remidys??

 

[annka5]

Re: being wild caught... I've a dwarf colour variant which is definitely tank bred, and he spits too, I think it's just an instinctive thing.
Grim with the bullying still continuing though!! Try leaving them to settle for a couple of days and keep an eye on things. I don't know anything about betta's so wouldn't like to comment there...
Have you enough hiding places in the tank?

 

[Matthew5664]

Hiding places, i don't think are a proplem at the moment got 8 or 9 plants rocks and allsorts in there, gonna leave them to calm down for a few days then draw up a POA

 

[fiorile833]

Mine spit at me too! Everytime I put a hand over the top they spit at me, I thought it was the funniest thing and love watchin em do it.

I don't know their real names but, I have two orangy ones and one yellow. The yellow one bullies everyone in the tank if they get too close, and one of my orange ones is v timid. I feel bad for that one cuase the other two will chase her away.


I was also wondering...the long tenticle like things they have, do they shed them?
My yellow gourami started off with two, then one got shredded so he tech. had 3. And then it fell off completely. Its been a few wks like that and he's totally fine so i'm not worried but thought it was weird

 

[kimbowee]

You can try moving your tank around some. I was told that if I introduced any new Gouramis that I should move around the decorations & plants in the tank. That way any established territories are destroyed and they have to start over & establish a new pecking order & new territories.

Maybe that will help.

I have 3 male Dwarf Gouramies in my 30 gal tank without any problems. 2 of the stick together and one must think he is part of the Hatchetfish shoal. Only time I have seen the slightest aggression is at meal time. Even then its only a quick chase, no damage and no actual fighting.

 

[Raz]

You can try moving your tank around some. I was told that if I introduced any new Gouramis that I should move around the decorations & plants in the tank. That way any established territories are destroyed and they have to start over & establish a new pecking order & new territories.

Maybe that will help.

I have 3 male Dwarf Gouramies in my 30 gal tank without any problems. 2 of the stick together and one must think he is part of the Hatchetfish shoal. Only time I have seen the slightest aggression is at meal time. Even then its only a quick chase, no damage and no actual fighting.

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I have to agree completely with that.
Redecorateing the tank throws the fish off a bit and it might reduce the spats.....

 

[sylvia]

First of all - the spitting is normal. It's an instinct carried over from when these fish were wild (as almost all you find now are mass tank-bred) and is often seen when you are feeding because this is their way of knocking down flying insects and such so they can eat them.

Adding another female was bound to cause this 'chain' like you say. This is why I always suggest adding 2 at the same time to split the aggression up. With fish, when you add a newcomer to a tank containing a bully, the fish being bullied will attack the next in hierarchy and that one will bully the next, and so on until the newcomer - typicaly the lowest ranked because it hasn't settled in yet.

Re-aranging the tank might help but also get a lot more ornaments and floating plants. This will allow the male dwarf to have a more clear-cut territory and also give the females places to hide.

While you're at it, take that betta out. No matter how friendly they are now bettas AND gouramies are notorious for being unpredictable. One minute they'll ignore each other - the next one of them is floating belly-up and the other is covered in scars. Especialy if you're going to change their environment, they'll be forced to interact when re-setting their territories and, at this point, they can turn very nasty.

Moving the betta to a 10 gallon would be fine but make sure he is seperated from ANY other bettas (or gouramies) - whether male or female.