What Is It Doing?

[richard_mincher]

h ithere, got a bit of a problem here... I have had a Gold Gourami for a bit now, its 'about' 8cm long by about 4cm high... and i got a Dwarf Gourami yesterday... it's pretty small, about 4cm long by about 4cm high... now the Gold Gourami at first was very interested in the dwarf... the Gold followd the dwarf around, not attacking it, but just leading it around, then when i put some bloodworms in, the Gold sort of led the Dwarf to the food and seemed to be showing it what to do??? now this may seem crazy? But the problem is that the Dwarf sems terrified by the Gold, is it just the sheer size of the Gold? Also i know the Dwarf like a heavily planted aquarium and so it stays in amongst the plants but whenever he comes out to eat the Gold moves over to it and the Dwarf shrinks away into the cover of the plants...??? what's going on? I thought possibly they (the Gold) want to mate, but i then realized i don't know the sex of the fish, how do you tell? thanks very much,

richard

 

[mrjames]

hey
out of all gouramis,the golden is the most aggressive,but still generally a comunity fish. i once put a new parrot cichlid in with my gourami and he attacked it lol. he probably has bullied the dwarf gourami and thats why its scared. make sure you keep those hiding place for the dwarf as it will feel more compfatable to come oout more knowing it can retreat to somewhere. and if it was just a one off from the golden gourami things should go back to how they were in a few weeks. if the golden carrys on im afraid the dwarf wont survive due to the size and aggression difference. good luck

james B)

oh ye and on the subject of sexing them= the male's dorsal fin is a lot longer than the female's, her's will be sort of rounded. try this link+ ahttp/www.fishcrazy.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=9673.msg138327nd apparently dwarf female are normaly silver.

james B) B)

 

[Fizban]

just thort i would add golden gouramis and Dwarfs cant have baby fry cuz there 2 difrent typs of gourami but fish some times will act the same to female if the other typ of fish looks like there typ so u could still have the problem of the gold wanting to breed and if it dose it will realy start going after and even Attacking it abit cuz the three spot is realy what alot of peepl may call the gold coz its a color color morph of the three spot like the blue and the platinum and opaline gouramis are so they will breed if put together and they are very aggressive when mateing some times they kill the female with stress as for your one it sounds more like the the gold is bullying the Dwarf it could be cuz its new .......some times that can be fixed by takeing them out and moveing all the stuff round in the tank cuz then the gold can some times be confused in to thinking he is new as well and dose not try to defend his territory other then that i dont no what you could try if it were me i would keep it for abit and find out all i can to try to fix it as long as it dose not hurt the Dwarf but if no one can surgest any ways of fixing things or u just find it easyer u should take it back cuz they can die of stress i hope this helped ether way it need to be fixed

 

[sylvia]

You have an aggression issue here and should return the dwarf gourami. As was said, gold gouramies (being one of several 'three-spot gourami' color morphs) are rather aggressive fish that generaly do better without any other gourami companions. By contrast, dwarf gouramies are usualy quite timid fish that keep to themselves as far as other gouramies go. Furthermore, dwarfs are realy a very fragile species and cannot deal with a lot of aggression or bullying. If you continue to keep the two fish together, chances are your dwarf will end up dead - either due to a direct attack or as a result of bullying indirectly leading to disease (as a result of stress).

Sexing gold gouramies (and all three-spots) is very simple - the dorsal fin in the male is much longer and more pointed. Also, looking down at the fish, females are generaly wider. From the side, females also appear deeper-bodied while males are more streamlines. males also eventualy grow to be slightly larger than females and, if you could compare behaviour, you'd find males tend to be far more territorial and may appear to remain within a 'boundary' (in larger tanks) while females will roam freely.

Your dwarf gourami is more than likely male. Female dwarfs are usualy much duller in color than the brightly colored males. As a consequence, they aren't as popular and not as often stocked by LFSs. Though males also have a longer dorsal and anal fin than the females', color is usualy an easier way to sex dwarfs.

 

[richard_mincher]

cool, thanks for all your help everyone, you'll be happy to know that i now have an 10 gallon tank and am moving the dwarf gorami and the Neon Tetras to this new tank... to make room for a new angel fihs probably... i am planning to have only these fish in the new tanks and lots of plants... does this sound acceptable? will they have enough room, oh yea i am also getting a small pleco or algae eater, then if he grows too large, i can transfer him into my Rio 180...
thanks for all your help