Pearl Gourami acting strange

[Ccthompson]

I’ve noticed a couple times at night out of the corner of my eye my wall mushrooms move. This has happened every now and then at night over the last week or two. Never really catch it in time to see what’s hitting it. But i noticed it happen often.

I finally caught it tonight. Turns out it’s my pearl gourami rubbing up against it.

Anyone have an suggestions as to why he would be doing this? Is it normal? I watch my fish fairly frequently during the day. I have NEVER seem him do this during the day when the tank lights are on.

When I processed the video to a gif it sped it up about 2x. Real time is slower then shown.

 

[TNG]

It looks like your fish sees something in the decoration when the light is low. I’d remove the mushroom to stop antagonising the fish.

 

[gwand]

Sometimes fish rub against object when they have parasites on their skin.

 

[Uberhoust]

The fish seems to focus on one location on their body to rub against the object. The clip is short but I suspect that the fish has an irritation on that portion of their body and the mushroom object is the right texture to scratch it (flashing). I would carefully examine your fish to see if anything is apparent on the fish. If the fish continually targets the object you might want to consider removing it if you don't see anything external on your gourami.

It also appears that you have a blue/black light on in the tank. With the fluorescent mushroom it might be generating a color that the fish reacts too. Try running without that light on.