Pearl Gourami Aggression ? add another female?

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Fishfry

AC Members
Feb 20, 2005
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Pearl Gourami Aggression – add another female?

Helllo Everyone,



I have had a pair of Pearl Gouramis for a couple of months and over the last few weeks the male has been constantly harassing the female.

The tank is a heavily planted, medium to heavily stocked 29 gallon. The aggression is only displayed towards the other Gourami. Since the tank is heavily planted the female does have places to hide but it doesn’t seem to help. In fact when the tank gets over grown the harassment gets worse because there is less swimming room.

I’ve done some research and I’ve come across mixed suggestions. Some people say to add more females, so the male’s aggression gets spread out among multiple fish. Others have said that all the fish will bully the weakest female.

Any thoughts? Could any other conditions, such as water quality, be causing an increase in aggression?

Thanks

Tom
 
Same as above, but if they're not the only fish and enough hiding places are provided don't get another female. I had a similar experience once and what happened was: that when a female was not being harassed by the male she harassed other fish!! They even ganged up sometimes too...weird though.
 
The tank has a bunch of tetras, cories, & guppies. None of the other fish get harassed. There are a lot of places to hide in between all the plants.

Thanks for the quick responses

Tom
 
Also a 29gal is small for the female to hide.
 
gustavo85 said:
Ok, is she being able to eat? Does she have extensive damage physically?
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She doesn't have any physical damage. When they were first added to the tank he would occasionally chase her, and she would swim off. This was very intermittent and I didn't think much of it.

However, now, in addition to chasing her he seems to be hitting into her. I'm actually slightly surprised that she doesn't have any bruises / bites. But from watching them I think it is only a matter of time.

Frustrating because I was under the impression that the pearl's were some of the least aggressive gouramis.
 
Fishfry said:
But from watching them I think it is only a matter of time.

Frustrating because I was under the impression that the pearl's were some of the least aggressive gouramis.
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Yes, it will be a matter of time, mine are fine and peaceful right now. And yes I had that impression too. But they're less agressive than most though, it's just that they have gourami blood:grinyes:.
 
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