totallyfrozen

Thanks for reading-

A little history. I have a 30 gal. freshwater with one apple snail (2"), one--old as dirt--flying fox (4"), one Sunset Flame Gourami (dwarf), one Neon blue Gourami (dwarf), and one Pearl Gourami (3").
The tank is moderately planted meaning that it is fairly well planted but the plants (and tank set up) is fairly new so the plants are not at their full size yet. I have a couple of plants that are around 8" tall. Most of the other plants are around the 3-4" tall range. All plants are real/live. Water temp it consistently around 78 - 80 degrees F. Slightly soft, slightly acidic. My tests show decent bacterial activity as my toxins are virtually absent. I change water/vacuum the gravel once a week. I offer flake food and live food (blood worms) almost daily. So I think food competition should be low to non-existent.

When I had first added the 2 dwarf gouramis to the tank, I had some floating pants (I read that they like those). The Neon blue was territorial over the floating plants and got nippy with the Flame gourami. I removed the floating plants and the aggression immediately stopped.

Fast forward a few weeks. Yesterday, I got an adult, male Pearl Gourami and added him to the tank. Since he joined the tank, he has pursued both the dwarf gouramis. At first, I thought that it was a curiousity thing...getting to know his tank neighbors. After a night in the tank, here we are in the next day and he is still chasing the other fish. Gouramis check out other fish (and their environment) by touching them with their ventral fins (that look like tentacles). The dwarf Neon is fairly bold and has touched and gotten close to the Pearl at times (but has to sneak up behind him to get close without being chased). The Pearl has touched and then chased the Neon and the Flame as well. Flame gouramis are more sensitive than a few other types of gouramis. My flame lost color for several hours (stressed) but then regained his orange tail. Even so, it tends to hide near the bottom behind some plants and/or rocks and tries to avoid the new Pearl. This morning my Flame didn't even want to come out of hiding to eat. If the Pearl sees the Flame he approaches, tries to touch it and then, when the Flame swims away, the Pearl pursues him around the tank--until the Flame hides behind a plant. I have seen the Pearl hiding quite a bit too. He's been on the bottom behind the rock work or hiding behind a tall plant and the heater. All 3 fish seem to occasionally try to approach each other at slow speed to get close to each other and touch each other--but then the darting and chasing begins.

During all of this, the Pearl Gourami had a nice orange chest and belly when I bought him but that color has NOT come back since he's been in my tank. I have to assume that he's stressed. I thought that 30 gal would be big enough to have a few small fish without stress. I'm a firm believer in NOT overstocking my tanks. However, I have seen some tanks (e.g. cichlid tanks) that are overstocked and the overstocking seems to cancel out the territorial nature of the fish and they are "forced" to get along.

So, do I need more plants? Fewer fish? Different fish? Re-introduce the floating plants? More time to adjust?

I'd hate to lose even one fish. These gouramis dart around trying to either touch each other or get away from each other but there is no visible biting going on. I haven't seen any nipping of fins or anything like that. If they are just playing a gourami game, then why the pale coloring? and continuous hiding?

-Thanks for your time

P.S. I don't know how I got this in here but I posted it in the wrong area--this is not a hardware issue. Sorry.

ZeroSystem

Interesting post! One of my co-workers has told me that Dwarf Gourami's and regular Gourami's shouldn't be mixed together, and that sometimes male Gourami's can become aggressive towards one another. Thats only what I've been told though and it probably doesn't help too much. I have no experience with Gourami's though.. Hopefully someone else will chime in soon to help you out more. I'd be interested to find out what the problem is as well.

Tbx

I would say gouramis are like tangs and to may of the one species will cause issues.Adding plants wouldn't help much they will eventually find eachother again but may have enough time to lose them in the plants,Over stocking would work If you have enough filltration you should probably look in to getting a small external filter if you are to try something along that road and you would have to get a right ballance between slightly over stocked and higly over stocked well that is all I have to say on the issue if you do the over stocking thing tell me how it works out.

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totallyfrozen

I called my LFS and the guy said that I could bring the Pearl back and trade it in for a female (or another fish). My fiance and I decided that we would rather just get rid of him than risk stressing the other fish to death. There are so many peaceful community fish to choose from that it's just not necessary to put up with this territory fight.

If all else fails, "Gourami on a Ritz! Mmmm good cracker!"

Tbx

Yeah that would be best to take him back instead of trying to over stock and end up killing a lot more of them.

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totallyfrozen

My tank is a community tank with a focus on the Gouramis. I ended up finding a LFS quite by accident and it turns out they have a MUCH better and larger aquarium section than the others in town. Well, the lady there had Red Honey Gouramis (dwarf)! I've been wanting those for awhile, so I ironed it all out. I returned the Pearl--got some Brilliant Rasboras instead. BIG MISTAKE!! They darted around everywhere and scared my Sunset Flame Gourami to death--literally. So I sold them to a 12 year old girl. Now I have two juvenile Red Honey Gouramis--about an 1" or so long. Cutest little things in the world, and one blue Dwarf Neon. I plan to end up with a total of 2 Neons, 2 Red Honeys, and 2 Sunset Flames and call it quits.

Tbx

I have never seen a Rasbora ever scare a fish.

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totallyfrozen

There were 7 rasboras. They were darting around rather boldly. Even so, it's likely that they did NOT cause the death of the Flame. He had been ill, I treated him in a hospital tank, and he looked to be recovered...then he died. So, I think that illness and/or weakness killed him. Strange thing. He died suddenly. His color was good, he was swimming and eating and acting normal. After light was off and I was watching TV, then my fiance told me that there was "a problem with the snail and the Flame". I looked in the tank and the snail was eating the dead Flame. I know that apple snails don't kill fish. They eat dead fish that sink to the bottom. The Flame had shown some fear of all the rasboras darting around him when he rejoined the community tank. He swam away and hid when they came around; however, there was really no place to hide because the rasboras were swimming EVERYWHERE in the tank (and bumping into him). Could be illness killed him, but I still suspect that all the over-active rasboras contributed to his stress.

I sold them on Craigslist to a little girl. I have 2 new Flames (or Cinnamons. I'm not sure), 2 Honey Reds, and one Neon blue. I will later add one more Neon blue for a total of 6 Gouramis. The fish that I have all live in peace with each other and there doesn't seem to be any stress in the tank.