Question about aggressive pearl gourami in QT

[briannesbitt]

We bought 2 pearl gouramis and 3 panda corys this past Sunday.  We have all 5 in a 5g QT tank in preparation for our 45g main tank.  For the last 2 days the "slightly" larger gourami is bullying the smaller one and making him stay in the back right corner of the tank.  Also the same bully nips at the corys a little bit but they don't really seem to care.

What should we do?
1) Return the bully to the store?
2) Jump the gun and move the smaller guy to the main tank (they all look healthy but its only been 5 days and with the added stress of being corned maybe a bad idea)?
3) Do nothing and wait it out for the QT period and then move them to the big tank and since they will have a lot more space it won't be an issue?

I am not really sure but I "think" they are both males as they both seem to have the orange under the belly near the head but I assume they are both still pretty young.

[brotherluv]

Your process of quarantine is smart but 5g for 5 fish is pretty tight...personally I'd bring back the bully and once the remaining 4 are in the display tank if you want another gourami get it and qt it by itself or maybe 1 other fish...

[Brine]

too much fish in too little volume..get a bigger QT or get fewer fish

[briannesbitt]

Ok. Sounds like the consensus is in.  Kinda thought that once it started happening.  Thanks.  We'll most likely do one at a time then if we still want the 2.  Otherwise just one might be ok anyway.  We'll see after we get one in the main tank.

[Fishnut]

Gouramis have a tendency to be a quarrelsome fish, especially if the genders are mixed.  Maybe you have 2 males and 1 female and the dominant male is driving the other male away?  If you return the bully to the LFS, one of the others might take it's place.  Also, if the remaining 2 are opposite sex, the male will never leave the female alone.

I've never had luck housing more than 1 gourami in a tank so I've made it a personal policy to never try it again.  I even tried mixing a pearl with a 3 spot.  That didn't work.

5 fish in a 5 gallon for QT is OK if they're small fish but most gouramis are usually sold at about 2" - 3".  PLUS if they're confined in space the dominant one behaves exactly how your is.

[sylros]

I've got 2 pearl gouramis, 1 of each and the male is always after the female. He was kinda rough at first but she outsmarted him and was able to escape everytime, and retaliate too! But the fighting or poking never resulted in injury so I let it be. After a few weeks, finally they were getting along, swimming next to each other. I find that it's during feeding time, he'll bully all of the other fish out of his way sometimes. I've also got some dwarf and iridescent blue gouramis, there too I have females for each. The orange one was the aggressive one until the Pearl came along. I've had this tank since just before Xmas last year, now everyone gets along, it's 36 gal, planted. There used to be an area that one of the dwarf gourami was chasing other fish out of, but there were so many, I think he gave up. lol

I read somewhere that this behaviour usually happens when they are new to the tank as well which I tend to believe as they are all settled now. But it can also be caused by too small of a tank.

A rounded dorsal fin is a sign of a female, a pointy fin is a male. I would put one of them in the big tank because the 5qt is very small. If the big tank is established and he looks healthy and you're not afraid of affecting other fish - expensive/rare ones?

Good luck, let us know what you end up doing and what happens!

[briannesbitt]

Thanks all.  We chalked it up to a mistake (despite our best efforts) and returned the bully back to the store.  We might try to QT and introduce a 2nd pearl gourami (female) later but for the short term future one it is.

So once the 1 pearl and the 3 pandas go in we are going to get 1 raphael catfish by itself.  Then finally our last fish will probably be a small school (6) of rainbow fish which we'll QT in 2 sets of 3.  I think that should be fine?

At that point our main tank will be fully stocked!  Going to be a fun summer!  Then we start thinking about tank #2... lol