Scared Gourami

[tredd]

I recently bought a pair of gold gourami's in hopes of breeding them. I put them in seperate 10 gallon aquariums with other fish. The male is acting fine and swimming around, but the female stays pointed at the back right corner of the tank all day. Even when i feed them, she barely moves around. If I walk into the room she goes crazy crashing into everything in the tank, and then goes back in the corner. I moved her into a 20 gal tank by herself, and she doesn't crash around but she sits staring at the corner of the tank all day. She looks real healthly and I can't figure out what's wrong.

Any ideas?

[AznDork42]

try brine shrimp for a few weeks when u feed her, she's probably just not used to having people around, train her to know that your only bringing food to her

[dorkfish]

What were the "other fish" in each tank? How big are the gouramis (10g is not big enough for a full grown three spot gourami)?

[Rowangel]

What are your tank parameters (nitrite, ammonia, nitrate...)? How long has the tank been up and how often do you do water changes/gravel vacs?

[kblane]

This sounds behavioral to me . . . I agree, she's just not accustomed to folks being around the tank and lots of movement.

Also and most importantly, I would not plan on housing the male/female pair together long-term. I know there are probably hobbyists out there who've had success, but the Trichogaster genus is far too territorial in my experience. The male may very well have been intimidating her in some unnoticed way.

Having kept gouramis from several genus and in multiple combinations, I am of the school that only one Trichogaster per tank. In many cases you will not be able to have any other type of gourami (or sometimes even gourami-like fish) with the Trichogasters. I dislike the entire genus for that reason (personal preference there).

I think the Colisas are more interesting in their breeding habits, color or temperament.

Good luck though.

Kev.