White gourami chasing golden gourami

tigga

Hey

i was wondering why my White LG gourami keeps on chasing my golden gourami. I dont see any nips but the white one keeps chasing the gold one. The white is slightly bigger than the golden.

Thanks

leifthebunny

Gourami are fairly territorial. Is the white just defending a specific territory or chasing all around the tank? Were both added to the tank at the same time? And are there enough things in the tank to give them comfort zones where the gold can hide out of view from teh white?

tigga

its chasing all around the tank. they were both added at the same time and there are a couple of hiding places where the gourami does go, but it doesnt seem to want to hide

Also one of one assorted Platy is chasing the other Platy.

leifthebunny

Are they both males? I've heard that a number of the gouramis tend to get prety mean. My LFS was telling me about a gold gourami that a customer had that delighted in attacking other fish to include popping their eyes out. I would have thought that the white would be a little tamer, but fish don't bother to read the books ....

tigga

Yeah i heard that they can be very terrotorial, but i don't see no harm seeing that the gold gourami doesnt hide at all. I can't tell if they are both males but I assume they are becasue the LFS i go would usually have one gender for each tank of each fish.

Reun

first of all, how big is the tank?

That makes a big differance for multiple reasons. in too small of a tank male gouramis WILL bicker amoungst themselves, even if no permanent damage(open wounds from bites) is done. Also, from the sounds of it, you have full size gouramis, so unless you have a 55 gallon or larger tank, expect the battles to get worse.

If you do have a 55 gallon or larger, just ignore it unless one is being cornered and is unable to eat or move because the other has it pinned, or unless open wounds appear on one of them.

If you have less than a 55 gallon, take one of them back. if you have less than a 29 gallon, take both of them back.

Most gouramis sold in fish stores are male as the females tend to not have the brilliant colors the males do, most stores cant even special order females, so most of the gouramis you buy in the pet stores are all males...so, just like in the wild, expect them to get territorial and chase others out of their space or to wage war amoungst themselves.

Silli_Millivanilli

I was going to ask this same question... Two days ago I added two same specie gouramis to my 29 Gallon tank. They are both no more than two inches in length, and less than an inch in height, so I assume they are young. I am having difficulty sexing them, but I believe they are both females. When I first put them into the tank, they were pretty close to one another, always remaining together, as I already had one adult gourami in the tank, which is about 5 times their size. Now today, i'm seeing one chasing the other all over the tank. I already knew Gourami's could become aggressive, so I purchased several hiding places, but the one being chased does not hide. So i'm wondering is one a male, and is just trying to court the female, or are they fighting. Every now and again, they'll put their lips together for a minute of so like they are kissing one another.

Can anyone clarify whats going on?

Mirta

They are kissing gouramis then - a male and a female!

tophat665

Now, channces are the white and golden gouramis are both actually blue gouramis (Trichogaster trichopterus). There are opaline, three spot, golden, white/platinum, and lavender color morphs that I know of. They're mildly aggressive. If there are only two in a tank, then it's magnified. These guys get up to 5" long. The tank needs to be arranged in such a way that sight lines are broken up, and territories can be defined. I'd say give yourself at least 20 gallons per fish. (Their Bioload would probably let you put 1 in 8 gallons, so you can have other fish use the remaining 12 gallons so long as they're not aggressive.)

The Kissing Gourami lip lock is not a kiss, it's a fight. This is not romance. It's probably two males trying to sort out dominance. Don't ask, don't tell. :) Note that kissing gouramis can get up to a foot long (usually they stick aroud 8"), can be very aggressive (YMMV), and they will eat your plants even though they prefer a heavily planted tank.

Mirta

Tophat's gourami review is super!

What about golden gouramis - are they also aggressive?