pg much bigger than other

[aquame]

Hi there,

in my 120lt tank I have: 1 bristle nose catfish, 3 cherry barbs, 1 baby angel fish, 2 pearl gourami's, 2 corydoras (bronze + salt&pepper) and 7 neon tetra's.

I'm not sure of the sex of my pearl gouramis, but they used to hide a lot. One of them has come out a lot more over the last few months, is not at all shy anymore and "socialising" with the others (i THINK this may be a male one). I would only see the other one (which i THINK could be a female one) during feeding time and it usually hid.

Now both of them are swimming through the entire tank lately, but I noticed a distinct size difference between them. I don't remember if this has always been the case!

The one that's recently swimming around more seems a lot smaller, and occasionally being picked on by the other gourami. I'm worried!! The bigger one seems to nip? on (her?) side? I have no idea if this could even be mating, but the fact she(?) has been in hiding until recently...

Could it be he/she is not getting a lot of food?

The big one has a full roundish body like this one: http://www.fishlinkworldwide.com/fis...rl-gpurami.jpg (not necessarily the same fins)

The little one (female??) has a body a lot like this: http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...iWFA_C2315.jpg - in particular the narrowing towards the end.

Should I be worried?

[ScottishFish]

Multiple gouramis basically don't live in harmony together, no matter the sex. I tried multiple females per male, still ended in bloodshed. Sounds to me like one is dominant, harrassing the other, making it not want to feed and so is smaller and not growing, best bets is to rehome one unfortunately. My rule is 1 gourami unless you have a crazily planted tank of 70g+

[aquame]

Multiple gouramis basically don't live in harmony together, no matter the sex. I tried multiple females per male, still ended in bloodshed. Sounds to me like one is dominant, harrassing the other, making it not want to feed and so is smaller and not growing, best bets is to rehome one unfortunately. My rule is 1 gourami unless you have a crazily planted tank of 70g+

Thanks for your reply ScottishFish!

I would separate them but I haven't cycled my second (much smaller, 50lt) tank yet. I'm also still not 100% sure if it is in fact a territorial issue or confidence thing as they both used to hide a lot. For now I think I may leave it, once I have my second tank going I will re-evaluate. The small one does come out and eat enough at feed time, or so it seems... then it retreats again.

I guess judging my the lack of other replies everyone agrees with this? :)

[ekfishlover2011]

yea its really hard to keep multiple gouramis. Sometimes you can get away with a male and two females (like me) but even then you sometimes have small scuffles, and theres always that one extra aggressive one that doesnt work in your tank and needs rehomed. I think the main reason it works so good for me is because my gold is most docile thing ive ever seen (unless provoked, but even then she just gives other fish a good scare and doesnt hurt them) and the other two are tiny dwarves and its a 75gal area to avoid eachother with. And sometimes it just doesnt work for people at all. Its like keeping a betta with community fish. Some bettas its doable, others it is definitely not. Gouramis are bettas' cousins.