as mentioned in an earlier post, i have a small colony of varying gouramis. everyone generally lives in harmony except for my two three spots and my platinum. my biggest three spot is about 2" long as is my platinum and my smaller three spot is about 1" long. i know that three spot males can be particularly aggressive in a territorial way but all three of these fish are females. the larger three spot is constantly chasing the other two around which has only started in the last day or so. no one seems to be getting hurt but i am baffled as to why he only seems to pick on those like him. all the others in the tank including the three platys seem to be uninteresting to him.

should i take him out and put him in the 'sin bin'? this is my name for the holding tank i have set up for 'naughty' fish or is this something that may pass? that could be a naive question im not sure lol

emily :D

At 2" long, they're still very young. The pestering of each other may only increase. You know how two male bettas will fight, sometimes to the death? Well, most male gouramis will also fight with each other - other males of the same or similar species. They rarely actually hurt each other but can be fiesty with each other. Females can be feisty too, although usually not as often. Gouramis are more interested in pestering other gouramis than species that look nothing like gouramis. How do you know their sexes at such a small size, do they have a lot of color differences between sexes? I've never had those species of anabantoids myself but have had bettas, honey gouramis, and paradise fish/gouramis.

Moving the most aggressive gourami to another tank for a while may work but it may not. It is possible the dynamics in the tank will change as time goes on but it's hard to predict.

i was told to look at the dorsal fin to determine sex on the three spots and also the body shape. apparently the dorsal fin is short and round in the female and long and pointed in the males. also there should be a line of orange/yellow on the under fin (the name escaped me right now lol) then then females will be a little more round in the body and the males are longer and sleeker. also i bought them as they were advertised as females and i didnt really want to many if any males in the tank.

they way i figure it even if i do take the bully out someone will rise up the ranks to be the next alpha fishy :) dunno though everyone else seems to be very peaceful