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A few weeks ago I bought two of these. I'm pretty sure both are female and I did lots of research on this fish before adding them to my 75 gallon community. I wanted to be certain they would be ok in this tank which mainly consists of smaller fish. 8 black neons, 11 regular neons, 6 various cories, 4 silver hatchetfish, and about 10 adult guppies most of which are female. The tank is moderately planted with plenty of hiding spots.

Well, two of those guppies had very large ornate fins. Over the past week I've noticed those two had some nipping in their fins. More then they usually get from the females, but still nothing I worried too much about. This happened all the time when I had them in a tank with just guppies. I have some rather aggressive females. So I let it be...

Since then the male with the biggest fin has died. It just kept getting worse. The nips got a lot worse a lot faster then what the females could cause and I think by the time I was going to act on it, it was too late. The other male has been acting perfectly normal except his tail has been very nipped as well. Again, more so then what any of these female guppies have caused before. I was just getting ready to get out a small QT tank to let him heal when I look over at my tank and see him being attacked by one of my opaline gouramis!! I couldn't believe my eyes. It looked just like a big dog attacking a smaller dog but on a fish scale. I swear to god he was shaking him around!! I had to bang on the side of the tank to get her to let the guppy go. Well, now he's pretty much gone. I don't think there's any hope for this guppy now.

I cannot believe this gourami is the source of the extreme fin nipping on these two gups. They are so peaceful to everything else in the tank. They never chase any of the fish, act territorial in any way, and there's even a ton of guppy fry for them to snack on if they wanted to. I've never seen them so much as "bat at eye" at such a tempting meal. When I was reading up on these fish, I don't remember reading anywhere that they were fin nippers. This is a complete shock to me... I think I'm going to have to take her back to the store but I'm pretty sure I'm over the time allowed to return fish. Hopefully they'll make an exception since she isn't dead.

Anyone else ever experience this with gouramis? I know they can have nasty dispositions at times, but I thought that was mostly the males. Its odd to me that they would attack just these two male gups. I've spent hours observing them and they never bother any of the other fish. Must have been this big tempting tails.

Last edited by Rewd at 15-Jan-2005 18:14

No sooner then I finish typing this essay the guppy makes a liar out of me. He's back to swimming with the other gups but not acting 100% normal (who would after being attacked?) so I think the gourami just stunned him. He doesn't have much of a tail left but he looks pretty good for the beatings he must have been taking over the past week. I've got him in a small, heated hospital tank now and I just have to pick up a bottle of melafix to prevent any secondary infections from setting in. On closer inspection of this gourami I'm not 100% sure that it's a female anymore. They are both still rather small (around 2".

rewd

Have a look in this thread.

With all this confusion in naming it is possible you could be you have "Blue Gourami"

As you can see by my thread they are extremly peacefull.

Here is a photo of one of my Opalines yes they are possibly more blue-ish than most reason I have no idea other than all the right environment for them and a very good mix of food.

http://fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Photo%20Booth/53059.html?200501152141


Keith

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Hi, I am no expert but the only thing I can think of is that one of the two gourami is a male, and the large fin of the male guppies make those guppies look big enough that perhaps the gourami is mistaking it for another male gourami.

I have heard that if you put two (even "peaceful" male gouramis in the same tank they will fight, sometimes even fight to the death like male bettas do.

The other possibility is that the gouramis are breeding (see any evidence of a bubble nest)? I have read that after breeding some male gouramis will "defend" their nest against any fish in the tank that might venture too near.

I have never had gouramis myself so all this is just based on what I have read. But if any of it is helpful, great.

keith, my gouramis are colored exactly like yours. I'm pretty sure these are the Opaline variety. Where I bought them they had the regular blues in a tank right next to the opalines and the difference in color is striking. The opaline variety is far more beautiful (IMHO) but being they are the same species, shouldn't the temperament be the same? Of course, it appears their reputation for that to vary among individual fish is founded.

JohnPaul, I think your guess is correct. When I first got these two fish (only 17 days ago) I was pretty sure both were female as both dorsal fins were pretty rounded. But now a few weeks later, the aggressive one is showing a much more pointed fin and the other is still just as rounded as before. I think I've gotten a male/female pair and they are still not harming anything else in the tank except as I type this "he" is chasing "her" around a log. Is this normal behavior when you have a male/female pair? It may be my own ignorance, but I can't imagine two females would chase each other around.

Anyone else ever experience this with gouramis? I know they can have nasty dispositions at times, but I thought that was mostly the males. Its odd to me that they would attack just these two male gups. I've spent hours observing them and they never bother any of the other fish. Must have been this big tempting tails.

It doesn't matter what their gender is.

I actually got a male-female pair of goldens and it was the female who beat up the fish in my tank. Particularly she tore at my male so badly and consistently I was afraid she was going to kill him, and she did kill several of my swordtails. I had to take her back because I couldn't be there to babysit them 24-7.

Gouramis do not like anything that looks like them. This includes other labyrinth or long-finnned fish (read: guppies). It all depends on the personality of your specific gourami whether there is major aggression or not: sometimes they'll leave them alone and other times they end up being a serial killer. It's a real luck of the draw, one that both you and I lost.