Bullying gourami

[Ozonelayr345]

The last couple days my gourami has developed an aggression and is chasing and nipping at my harlequins...I was told that gouramis were good community fish and generally peaceful. I was hoping someone could give me some feedback or an experience they had with a mean gourami.

[Dave66]

I take it you got a single gorami, and it was something like a three-spot? Larger species of Goramis are group fish, that is, they travel in large aggregations in nature. Solo ones tend to weird out and attack smaller tankmates as soon as they discover the smaller tankmates run from them. Only solution is to get rid of the goramie, take it back to the fish store, move it to another tank, or something, or it'll start killing your harlequins.

Dave

[Rhaethe]

I have a solo dwarf gourami, and he's generally quite peaceful with tankmates.

I have noticed that he will get frisky and a little bullish under the following conditions:

A) On Fast day. If Mr Greedy Pig thinks he's staaaaaarviiiing he can get petulant with other tankmates if I'm near and he thinks I'm going to be feeding. In other words, he's "protecting" his feeding territory. I just recently put the tank on a Fast Day, so hopefully once the fish settle into the routine, it will get better.

B) Lack of overhead protection / floating plants. Once I got floating plants in the tank, he settled down.

C) Tank changes of any sort. If there's a change in the tank, he notices it. Grumpy Gus does not like change.


I'm not sure what type of gourami you have, but if you have a dwarf, perhaps look into anything that may have changed recently. Perhaps you are feeding at a different time, are feeding less than normal, maybe his favorite plant or hidey hole got moved.

[Northernguy]

I have also heard of them getting aggressive.I had two in one tank and I had to seperate them.The male was attacking the female.I Now have a gold in with guppy males and they all seem to get along.He does give chase once in a while but thats to clear his cave.My blue female is alone in my community tank without any aggression at all.
It also depends on the fish.They all have unique personalities and are not all alike.

[VoidParadigm]

What's the species of your Gourami and how big is it's tank?

From the stories I've heard and the Gouramis I've experienced pretty much every species is a hit or miss fish. Even Pearls, reportedly one of the most peaceful, can become murderers over-night if the circumstances are right. Never believe someone who tells you a Gourami will always be well-behaved and nice. Two Gouramis from the same brood can even be on completely opposite ends of the personality spectrum.

My four specific experiences are;

Red, a Dwarf Gourami: Attacked anybody who went near any food particular in his territory.

Bubbles, a Dwarf Gourami: Shared meals quite willingly, and was very friendly, even to the extent of swimming with my Corydoras school.

Livius, a Blue Three-Spot: Very friendly during his short life.

Kiwi, a Gold Three-Spot Gourami: Her current kill count is up to seven fish. She has since been isolated. And she's getting witchier by the day. Rarely lets my hand within her tank anymore without trying to nip me.

If you want the Harlequins to survive, I would suggest seperating the two species.

[Ozonelayr345]

It is a pearl gourami in a 10 gallon. This is what makes it even more weird because from my research on pearls I found that they are generally the nicest gourami. I did however do a pretty large water change recently so that may have caused her to become a little more aggressive so I am going to wait a couple days to see if she quiets down before taking her to my lfs.

A friend also suggested that my harlequins may be sick and that the gourami can sense that or something.

[VoidParadigm]

Pearls are considered the kindest ones because they're quite nice when there's a male with a large harem and they're also the easiest gourami to keep in groups of the same species. Personally I would never put a Pearl in a tank smaller than 29 gallons, so the space issue could be what's causing it.

Regardless of whether the Harlequins are just sick, she's a plain old witch, or the amount of space, you do need another tank to solve any or all of those.

[Zilla]

I have 3 Golds. I was told that when there is only one they can and tend to develop bullying habits. I have one male and 2 females. I only paid for a pair because the second male died and the store didn't want the lone female to be lonely.

I haven't seen any type of aggression from any of them. Actually they are the complete opposite. If somebody goes near the tank, the three of them act like the greeting commitee. If I do a water change or anything that requires my hands to be in the tank, they are the first ones to come over and touch me with their feelers.

This morning I caught one "tasting" the side of my Jurupari. JJ didn't seem to care and it must not have bothered him as all he did was flick his fins as if to say "Well you please knock it off!" LOL The tasting female did stop, but it was a weird thing to watch and I really didn't know what JJ was going to do. It's a guess that they do this type of thing to him often and he just deals with it, or atleast until bed time anyway. He doesn't like it when everybody crowds into his resting corner. He hasn't bitten anybody yet, but he's been seen given other fish a swift push from the rear end.

[paulmac]

Yeah I too have a gourami that is constantly attacking the other gourami in the tank. It happens more during feeding time, but even at other times it just goes after the other one. I tried adding two more to the tank if nothing else to give this one more targets to go after. It immediatly harrased those to the point where they are hiding in fear. So I will try to remove the agressor from the tank before he stresses the other tank mates to the breaking point. Hopefully, once it is gone the others will be able to relax and settle in. It a shame, pretty fish, but poor tank mate.

[Aydreean]

I currently have a gold three spot and a blue three spot in my 45 and the bullying has just started. They don't bother any of my smaller fish but I notice themselves square off against each other and it almost looks like they're sparring. I don't know the sexes but after seeing this I'm pretty sure they are both males.

I know they are a hit or miss, but is there a generally accepted ratio of m/f that curbs this agression. 1 male to 2 female and so forth. the behavior doesn't seem to be too bad. they both stay on different sides of the tank and come together, feel each other with their little pokers and ram each other, and then go away. They feed together no problem too.

[VoidParadigm]

Not with 3-Spots. Often, a cranky 3-Spot will always be a cranky 3-Spot. They're very personality filled fish.

Besides that, the more females you add, the more eggs will be laid, which will just increase the chances of the males being grumpy, and possibly murderous.

Is there any chance you could return or sell the two three-spots and get some Pearls? Pearls love groups!

[Aydreean]

I have a very accepting LFS near here so selling them will be no problem. I will keep monitoring them and start looking into alternatives.