territorial fight between pearl gouramis

Lauren

Lauren

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Aug 9, 2003
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I had two pearl gouramis that got along great. One morning, I woke up to find that one had mysteriously died. I bought another one, quarantined him for a month, and added him. The older gourami had claimed one part of the tank as his (it seems) and the new gourami continues to go to that spot, knowing that the only one will attack him for doing so.

It looks like there is a bite taken out of the tail fin of my new gourami. He older one only attacks him when he goes for this one spot in the tank, at other times, they will swim near each other with no problems.

Is there a chance this will stop? Is there anything I can do to help them get along better?
 
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no, i doubt it will the stop. the older one clearly is not liking his new roomie!!!
 
gouramitail.jpg


that is what his tail looks like. At the moment they are getting together fine.
 
Rearrange the plants/rocks/decorations in the tank. That way the older Gourami will have to set up a new territory and everyone will be on the same level. Otherwise the fighting will not stop.

A7
 
awwww, poor fella......yeah, try rearranging the decor. hopefully it will help.
 
actually, if the only reason why they fight is when the younger one goes into the older one's spot, the younger one should eventually learn that he shouldnt go into the older one's spot. this is what happened with my rts and cherry barbs
 
I moved some plants around and repossisioned the drift wood, the new one was still hiding in the rotalla, I assumed he was just frightened. Today, I watched for a bit and saw that the older one was practically corralling the new one, forcing him to hide in the back of the tank. I netted the new one, I'm acclamenting him to the 10 gallon for now.

In the long term, what should I do? I would perfer to have 2 pearl gouarmis, but if this one is going to be a meany, I don't know if I can.
 
i doubt the aggression will stop once one claims his dominance, the result is usually death, or at best, a stressed fish. unless you have a 75 or larger i dont recommend it.
 
they were both male, I decided to try them out, since the other two worked out great, I decided to try again. I guess this one got to liking it alone. I'll go ahead and keep him alone, round off my cories instead.
 
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