Dwarf Gourami overactive/aggressive?

[entropy311]

For those of you who have read my previous posts, my tank finally finished cycling last week, and my 6 cardinal tetras finally started eating.

I picked up a neon blue dwarf gourami yesterday...at first he appeared to be attacking his reflection on the sides of the tank. He'd swim up and down the sides of the tank incessantly, and he would occasionally curl his body (almost folding it in half!) before snapping it straight and torpedoing across the tank (much to the dismay of my cardinals).

I tried to resolve the problem by attaching a black background (cut-out pieces of a black trash bag :joke: ); now he no longer attacks the sides of the tank, but he swims almost frantically back and forth across the front of the tank. He didn't eat very much today..he was more focused on swimming at me instead. I think he's trying to scare me off.

Is this normal behavior for dwarf gouramis? Right now my water parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10ppm nitrates, and the water temperature is 77 degrees. I performed a 30% water change a few hours before bringing him home, just to make sure the tank was extra clean.

 

[AndrewM6097]

Just wanted to bring this up to the top because io just got a dwarf gourami and he also folds himself in half. Can anyone verify if this is normal??

 

[NeonJulie]

My first one chased his reflection, almost all the time, but I can't remember the bending. Almost all day long he spent up and down, up and down. (Unfortunately, he didn't last long up against the ick/treatments.) As far as I know, pre-ick he WAS healthy. (Despite my first-time-fish-owner fears of potential Velvet, etc. It appeared he never had anything other than Ick.)

My new one, so far so good, has done EXACTLY what you have described, down to the darting across the length, and folding in half like a spring. In fact I was wondering if I should start a thread about it. When I watch him, I certainly don't think 'well he looks happy in there.' Despite my great parameters (although I did have a slight mini-cycle raise the Ammonia to .25, that only lasted on day out of 10). I have to think he is indeed trying to scare me/his reflection/ everything else off from his territory. But only sometimes, because he does come up to my fingers, which apparently = food. And he is a hungry, hungry beast. An eating (pooping) machine. *The previous Gourami was not so aggressive about eating, and indeed seem distracted. It would take him a while to show interest in his food too. I think I would prefer that - this guy is making it hard to make sure his tankmates get their share too. Not even the algae wafers are safe. And he is really looking fat. Like bulging on the sides.

I hope to hear more affirmations that this is typical behavior. Another thing he does, is sometimes he floats with his nose almost totally vertical. And I've seen him lay down on the rocks. No signs of un-health as far as I know, and I look. Is this normal as well? Does your Dwarf Gourami do this as well?

*Mine is a Colisa Lalia, the orange/blue ones.

 

[AndrewM6097]

i have a Colisa Lalia also, he doesnt float with his nose vertical. But mine does like to sit on the bottom. But he keeps his balance. and he def. looks healthy hes very bright and when he is swimming he moves well. He seems to be eating fine also so im sure he is ok. One thing i did notice when i got him home was one of hes feelers (dont know if thats what they are called) is smaller than the other. Im guessing that is from his being in a tank at the LFS.

 

[clawlan]

my gourami will chase his reflection and dart back and forth alot. But he doesnt do ti all the time, just a lot of the time lol. But he does love to eat, quite loudly i might add. I think its fairly normal.

 

[Squawkbert]

Mine's a noisy pig of an eater and does go shooting across the tank once in a while after taking a run at his own reflection. (I don't think they're a really bright breed).

 

[mvirata]

I am so glad you posted this I was going to post this myself. I think he is OK mine does that A LOT. At first I thought something was wrong with my water so I put him in another tank and he does the same thing. Gouramis are known to be unfriendly to other Gouramis so I think it makes sense.

 

[boofish2]

Sound normal to me too. In fact I've heard more about Dwarf Gouramis being more aggressive then then the larger species of Gouramis. My Dwarf Flame used to do the whole body bending mohawk raised side swimming thing as well. I think approaching another fish in this manner (or their own reflection for that matter) give the appearance of looking larger and more threatening, kinda like when a cat or dog raises their hair up. It's a trip to watch. My dwarf used to roll up on my Angels like that and they were 3 times his size... I tell you though, the Angels backed down more then once .
You Gouramis sounds like a normal little scrapper.

 

[Ghostshrimp55]

Yeah, it's normal behavior. I had a sick honey gourami that I had to remove and treat for a few weeks in a hospital tank. When I put him back I got to see some gourami sparring techinques. Pretty fascinating. Fins flared out, they faced off with each other for a little bit, tapping each other with those little feeler fins. Then they lined up side by side, facing opposite directions, and did the bend in half maneuver. They formed a gourami wheel and spun in a circle like this for a few seconds. Then they broke off and chased each other for a few seconds. That's when the head standing began. They actually did it both ways; sometimes with the head pointing up, others pointing down. Then, they repeated the whole dance again. This only lasted a few hours and they soon forgot all about it. I imagine the same thing will happen with your dwarf gourami. He should calm down, eventually.

Actually, during the height of all this drama, one of the honey gouramis decided it might be a good idea to tangle with my angel (He's about 4 times the gourami's size). So, he raced straight at him, got right in his face and put out his feelers. Then, not a half second after he got in his face, he came to his senses, staring at the angel almost as if he was thinking, "Uh oh........what the hell did I just do?" He quickly clamped all of his fins right up against his body and just kind of slowly backed off and went about doing something else. The angel just looked at him as if to say, "You got a problem, little man?" Funniest thing I've ever seen with fish.

 

[jamie1972]

My male dwarf gourami also does the up and down routine. He eats like he's starving plumb to death.....and seems healthy.

I guess we've established that these behaviors are normal.:clap:

I feel much better.....think I'll go home and leave the office all to him.:hi: