Added two pearl gouramis to my 29 this week. The tank has wild caught yellow-fin danios, cherry barbs, and the tank kings-two badis assamensis. All the other fish are extremely active and eat well and the tank is heavily planted with lot's of hiding spots. The gouramis looked stunning when I bought them, male was the dominant one in the tank and I got the best looking female to hopefully keep his colors up. Got them from a good quality dealer (all people who live in/near Charlotte should know about Fintastic), there was no sickness or anything in the sale tank, no signs of stress whatsoever. However now that the gouramis have been in the tank for almost three days they are both still in hiding, the female stays at the top behind the filter and the male stays in a cave. They did grab a few brine shrimp when I last fed but other than that they havn't shown themselves, any advice on how to get them out?
Shy gouramis
- Thread starter plantedtank12
- Start date
IMO just give them time. There is nothing to worry about yet and 3 days is not very long for them to get accustomed to their new surroundings. They should start to become less shy within a couple weeks or so. Pearls are great fish. I'm sure you will enjoy them. 
+1^
wait a while, maybe try doing a WC, or feeding some other type of food? i would wait a bit also, my pearls took like 2 weeks to actually start swimming around, as before they were just staying in one corner of the tank
wait a while, maybe try doing a WC, or feeding some other type of food? i would wait a bit also, my pearls took like 2 weeks to actually start swimming around, as before they were just staying in one corner of the tank
I've had a pearl in my tank for while. At first he was pretty active but lately he has been just hiding in the plants. Nothing changed in the tank. Kind of aggravating as he is now one of the more boring fish in the tank.
I would give them some time. The pearls I've had did take a while to get comfortable in the tank. Even after a year in the tank, all of a sudden it got skittish again and was almost constantly hiding for about 2 weeks. He eventually came out and was fine until he mysteriously disappeared (saw him one day and then couldn't find him the next. Never found any remains or any signs of him anywhere). The second pearl I got also took a while to get used to the tank. Now he comes over to the glass anytime we go up to the tank. We can even put our fingers on the glass and he'll move his ventral fins up to the glass to touch our fingers.
All right I will give them some time. The female is beginning to venture out but the male still hides with her in the back or in the cave. I haven't been able to get them to eat brine shrimp, bloodworms, or any type of flake. Should I be concerned that they still aren't even eating?
If your other fish are real active eaters, I would try to drop some food far away from the gouramis to get the other fish out of the area of the gouramis. While the others are eating, try to drop some food right above the gouramis. I had to do this with one of mine because my other fish would go crazy at feeding time and the gouramis wouldn't dare venture out.
My Pearl Gouramis was very active in my shallow 20long, but when I added him to the 40breeder he got very shy very fast. How deep is your tank, and do they have places to hide and move around in that float on the surface? I've noticed mine isn't coming out now that the floating plants have died/been removed. I'm actually hoping to get him some other plants (fake or real) when I set up my 55, so that he can hide better and feel more comfortable. Try that with yours. Also, they may be afraid of the overactive danios (assuming yours are like most, which are all hyper fish). Pearls may be semi-aggressive, but they can still be scared if there is too much activity in the tank. All of this is from my experience with my pearl.
I have tried but as soon as my hand goes over the tank, they dart away to the cave or behind the filter.
The tank is about 17 inch deep plus 2 in of gravel. There is a large plant floating around the top but I have some others I can add.
I guess all my fish are weird (loaches, shark, badis, betta......), it's actually my barbs that are the darting hyper-active fish, the danios just form a tight ball right in the middle and hover in the current, except at feeding time...
