# Gourami Fight



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

I had 2 female and 1 male pearl gouramis. The male and one of the females died so I had one female in the tank. I had the opportunity to purchase a male and female pair of Colisa lalia which I've added to the tank after quarantine. 

The girls have ganged up on the male. Yup, the female pearl gourami chases the male Colisa lalia around. He'll take refuge in the floating hornwort, sometimes there's a face off between the two.

Should I remove the female pearl gourami for a few weeks then reintroduce her? 

Thoughts?


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> I had 2 female and 1 male pearl gouramis. The male and one of the females died so I had one female in the tank. I had the opportunity to purchase a male and female pair of Colisa lalia which I've added to the tank after quarantine.
> 
> The girls have ganged up on the male. Yup, the female pearl gourami chases the male Colisa lalia around. He'll take refuge in the floating hornwort, sometimes there's a face off between the two.
> 
> ...


You can not mix trichogaster/colisa/macropodus.
I was certain I'd given you this info already... This was a very preventable loss. I don't understand how this could have happened.
You can not mix labyrinth fish species, with the exception of a very small number of smaller betta and micro-gourami species- and only if you're a seasoned veteran with a massive massive amount of space.

So, for example, you could likely mix three spot gouramis with sparkling gouramis in a 120 gallon tank.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Pablo, there haven't been any losses since I put Colisa lalia in the tank. The other 2 pearls died *BEFORE* I added Colisa.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Twice in the same day I do this... I think I'm dyslexic...

I've grossly misread and misresponded to 2 whole threads today...

Sorry about that.

But yes please do not mix larger gouramis of differing species.

i appologize.


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## lili (Dec 15, 2007)

Pablo said:


> Twice in the same day I do this... I think I'm dyslexic...
> 
> I've grossly misread and misresponded to 2 whole threads today...


Maybe just tired .... super-Pablo.

My blue dwarf gourami girls I had, fought a lot. I had to separate them. Very teritorial fishes. I was too scared to try male-female combo. But girl-girl .... didn't work. They act like betta .... a lot. 
L


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Thanks Lili, from time to time the female trichogaster is chase the male colisa across the tank then turn around and swim away, it is NOT relentless and it's sporadic. Sometimes both the female trichogaster and female colisa will chase the male. Sometimes the male colisa will chase the female colisa. Many times the colisa and trichogaster will ignore each other but I was wondering if maybe the trichogaster feels the tank is her territory b/c she was there first. I don't necessarily want to turn the tables of power but I'm wondering if I removed the trichogaster for a week or two, then returned her, it would be better?

Thanks again,

Tabatha


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> Thanks Lili, from time to time the female trichogaster is chase the male colisa across the tank then turn around and swim away, it is NOT relentless and it's sporadic. Sometimes both the female trichogaster and female colisa will chase the male. Sometimes the male colisa will chase the female colisa. Many times the colisa and trichogaster will ignore each other but I was wondering if maybe the trichogaster feels the tank is her territory b/c she was there first. I don't necessarily want to turn the tables of power but I'm wondering if I removed the trichogaster for a week or two, then returned her, it would be better?
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Tabatha


Hey sorry again for misreading.

No it wouldn't be better. Its a simple matter of those fish don't go together. Different species of larger gourami just do not want to tolerate other fish they feel compete with them. You'll never have them be good friends, its just not possible. Can you remove the dwarfs to a small tank? They don't need space like the pearls and threespots do..


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## aeri (Sep 9, 2007)

ime the re-introducing method doesn't work well with gouramis.
they get comfortable quick and get right back to being territorial


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

My pair of as-yet-sex-unknown smallish juvenile honey gouramis are quite peaceable. Since I don't intend to add any other labyrinth-fish at all to my setup I hope they stay that way; I'm glad of the word of warning!

W


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Well, I posed the same question to a fish magazine forum, moderator didn't see a problem with mixing grouami species.

Does anyone have any articles proving or disproving this theory?


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

I read something about Betta/Gourami and all labyrinth species having this interesting characteristic in one of my aquarium introductory books.

W


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> Well, I posed the same question to a fish magazine forum, moderator didn't see a problem with mixing grouami species.
> 
> Does anyone have any articles proving or disproving this theory?


I have several years of experience and have seen this several times.

Go look at a tank at any petshop where gouramis are mixed- even en masse, and watch them scrap.

Once the numbers are down and territories are selected all bets are off.

Go put a dwarf gourami with a paradise fish. That gourami has 2 minutes to live.

Trichogaster/colisa fights and colisa/colisa fights are less intense but there's no way in hell you're going to have a happy tank with several gourami species unless its freakin massive.

Again- you CAN mix certain species, such as croakers/sparklers with some of the larger species because they dont consider eachother a threat.

Id go ask this 'moderator' how many times HE's done this, and with which species in what size tank


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Just wanted to post an update; the male Colisa lalia has turned into a real a-hole and the only one who doesn't put up with his crap is my female Trichogaster leeri! *HIS* fins are just fine, no rips, tears or even nips. My angelfish, however, are being terrorized by the bugger and are having their fins tattered! 

Sooo... I'm thinking of moving my Trichogaster chuna trio into the 90g and the Colisa Lalia male into the 25g.

Pablo -- thoughts?


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

*my so called Honey Gourami looks nothing like the ones on the web...*

sample web pic

When I got it it had the faintest yellow but nothing like the picture above. It's now completely grayed out. Do you think it's stressed?

What color are yours tabatha?

W


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

KhuliLoachFan said:


> sample web pic
> 
> When I got it it had the faintest yellow but nothing like the picture above. It's now completely grayed out. Do you think it's stressed?
> 
> What color are yours tabatha?


Mine are the golden variety so they're a nice warm honey/orange colour.

Female Honey gouramis don't have the strong yellow colour. Do you know how many male/females you got?


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## KhuliLoachFan (Mar 8, 2008)

I suspect it's two females. I don't really know, but they're super laid back. They swim around and around each other and touch each other as much as they touch their food, with their "feelers" but they don't chase the other fish around. In fact there's one black molly in the tank and he bothers the gouramis more than anybody else in the tank. (It's 3 platys, 2 gouramis, and 1 molly in that tank).


W


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

It's so cute how they use their pectoral fins to touch things. Do they have a faint line in the middle of their bodies? If so, they're probably female.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> Just wanted to post an update; the male Colisa lalia has turned into a real a-hole and the only one who doesn't put up with his crap is my female Trichogaster leeri! *HIS* fins are just fine, no rips, tears or even nips. My angelfish, however, are being terrorized by the bugger and are having their fins tattered!
> 
> Sooo... I'm thinking of moving my Trichogaster chuna trio into the 90g and the Colisa Lalia male into the 25g.
> 
> Pablo -- thoughts?


You mean colisa chuna?

It won't matter. If you're mixing more than one kind of bigger gourami in your 90 you're gonna have problems.

You just can't do it.

ONE species of gourami per glass box. no exceptions (except the micro-gouramis like sparklers)


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> It's so cute how they use their pectoral fins to touch things. Do they have a faint line in the middle of their bodies? If so, they're probably female.


Or stressed males


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Pablo said:


> You mean colisa chuna?
> 
> It won't matter. If you're mixing more than one kind of bigger gourami in your 90 you're gonna have problems.
> 
> ...


I didn't realize Honey gourami (Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna) got big! Mine must be stunted.  

I googled for the scientific names, soooo aparently that didn't work...

I am thinking of moving the male dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia) to the 25g and moving the honey gourami (Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna) into the 90g with Pearl Gourami (Trichogaster leerii).


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Tabatha said:


> I didn't realize Honey gourami (Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna) got big! Mine must be stunted.
> 
> I googled for the scientific names, soooo aparently that didn't work...
> 
> I am thinking of moving the male dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia) to the 25g and moving the honey gourami (Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna) into the 90g with Pearl Gourami (Trichogaster leerii).


Its Colisa.

They don't get big. I'm saying big for anything bigger than a croaker.

You'd be surprised how big some of the 'dwarf' gouramis can get though, given a giganto-space and the right conditions. Even threespots can get pretty huge.

Seriously you really shouldn't be mixing these if you can keep them seperate in some way. They really have issues with other kinds of gouramis in their space. Something seems to always eventually happen. I (regrettably) tried this a few times when I was still figuring stuff out and it always ends badly in my experience.


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