Pair of dawrf gouramis

[alexv1n]

I have a pair of drawf gouramis in my 55 gal planted tank along with other fish (13 zebra danios, 15 neon tetras, 2 SAEs, 5 otos, 3 kuhli loaches) and some shrimp. The male look gorgeous and seem indifferent to everyone except the female. It just can't stand not to pick on her. The poor thing has to spend most of the time hiding behind plants or driftwood. Essentially, the male allows the female to occupy about 1/4 of the tank's space. As soon as she gets past the "border" she is attacked.

The only exception seems to be the feeding time when he allows her to go to the feeder and eat along with others.

Is that a normal behavior? Will the femail suffer from this as far as health is concerned (stress, disease, etc?). Is there anything that can be done to make them friends?

I read that adding more females might help. True? No?

BTW, when I first got them and placed in a q-tank, the male started to buld a nest but because the tank was small with little building material, he didn't succeed and I moved them to the main tank after two weeks. The male attempted to build the nest again but eventually it didn't hold up well and self-destroyed. Since then the male seemed to have lost interest in any construction work :)

[Lukara]

I used to have a pair of Dwarf Gouramis and the male did the same thing yours is doing now. I inquired about this at the LFS where I purchased the pair and I was told that this is a part of their mating ritual. When the male chases the female, supposedly he's trying to stimulate her underbelly which is a part of the process to "ready" her for mating, or "get her interest". In effect, this is what happened with my gouramies, shortly after this cat and mouse game started (a few weeks), they began to mate. The female didn't suffer any negative impacts from this.

[beviking]

No experience as Lukara has, but I've read that you should get another female to divert attention between the two b/c his attention to her (solely) can have negative results. If she is not injured or exasperated, maybe wait for a week, though it seems a shame to have a fish living in hiding all the time.

[fishdude]

I currently have 4 (2 male, 2 female) dwarf gouramis in my ten. But, yes I would think adding more would help and maybe another male too



also yesterday i was shocked to find one of my large males had gone into a hole in my driftwood and gotten stuck!:( I eventualy managed to pull him out, but he was torn up and died over night. is there a reason for him going in the hole.

And, after i removed him my other gouramis tried to go thru the hole so i removed it


is this an instinct or something because they have never done it before