Mr. & Mrs. Pearl Having Some Domestic Problems.

[CBBP]

well, Three days ago I got some pearl Gouramis, One of each gender. They where fine but now that they are established and eating mr. Pearl chases his girl away from food and she is not eating.

 

[Aqualife2u]

well, Three days ago I got some pearl Gouramis, One of each gender. They where fine but now that they are established and eating mr. Pearl chases his girl away from food and she is not eating.

Hi, do you have any other fish in the tank?

 

[CBBP]

Black Neons. about 25 or so. 6 SAEs and some cories that hide 90% of the time.

 

[sylvia]

It's never a good idea to keep gouramies in pairs. Get two more females and everything will be fine.

(but make sure your tank is big enough first!)

 

[CBBP]

it is only a 72 gallon... I has alot of fish in it already and is over stocked. will 1 more female stop the fighting?

 

[CBBP]

do I have enough room?

 

[sylvia]

72 gallons (you don't mean litres right?) is large enough but I kind of need to know what else is in there to decide whether or not you have room

One more female would work if you made sure she was the exact same size as the two pearls you already have and re-aranged the tank before adding her. HOWEVER, if you are over-stocked, don't add more fish. Return your female pearl to an LFS. The male will be fine on his own until such time as you have room for a couple of females.

 

[CBBP]

Re-arrange? wow that would be a mess... I suppose I have too.

 

[CBBP]

Well i added two more.. re-arranged the tank and still chasing.. but less since he can't possibly chase them all at the tame time. I would return the female but I know what happened to Returned fish at that store. Certain death.

 

[CBBP]

they seem to be getting along a little better... He still chases them a bit but he gives up faster and chases different ones around.

 

[sylvia]

That's the point of adding more - the male can't focus on a single one so none of them get overly-stressed. It's the same idea as keeping lots of cichlids together in African Rift Lake tanks so that they can be aggressive without causing any real damage. Having said that, you'll probably find your male will eventualy calm down anyway once the initial excitement over having so many females around passes

 

[CBBP]

Yes I have noticed this.. He is a lot nicer now that he has three girls in the tank with him, he even lets them swim behind him and eat a little. I am not sure if it is the three females or just the fact that when i re-scraped the tank (it needed it) i removed only the male.