My male Pearl Gourami is acting strange.

[ChrisD90]

Last night I was doing something and heard a splash coming from the tank and when I looked over my male Pearl Gourami was going nuts he was swimming up to the surface and splashing and then down to the bottom smashing himself into the substrate and stirring it all up then into the sides, he continued this for about 5 minutes until he went to the opposite end of the 6ft tank where its heavily planted and hid in the bottom corner which is very unusual behaviour for him. At this point I decided to let them have an early night and switched off the tank lights. This morning he was absolutely fine and back swimming with the female. 

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? What could be the cause and is it something to be concerned about?

Thanks

 🐟

 

[Schwack]

Mine started doing this several months ago. I bought them as adults, and they were a bit timid but slowly warmed up and would come out to greet me etc. Then, without anything happening, they started spazzing out every time I'd 'startle' them. Same sort of thing, they'd swim toward the back or into the substrate. I added some dither fish, which changed nothing, I replanted a bit to give them more cover, same story. It got to the point where I considered rehoming them and then it just... stopped. These days they're still pretty timid, but they'll come out whenever I open the lid or get down to their level and look into the tank. No idea what caused it or what solved it, but you aren't the first person to experience this behavior!

Edited November 16, 2021 by Schwack

[ChrisD90]

On 11/16/2021 at 7:21 PM, Schwack said:

Mine started doing this several months ago. I bought them as adults, and they were a bit timid but slowly warmed up and would come out to greet me etc. Then, without anything happening, they started spazzing out every time I'd 'startle' them. Same sort of thing, they'd swim toward the back or into the substrate. I added some dither fish, which changed nothing, I replanted a bit to give them more cover, same story. It got to the point where I considered rehoming them and then it just... stopped. These days they're still pretty timid, but they'll come out whenever I open the lid or get down to their level and look into the tank. No idea what caused it or what solved it, but you aren't the first person to experience this behavior!

That's very interesting mine sound pretty similar but are never normally timid they are normally right there watching every movement I make. When you say 'startle' them it actually made me think maybe I did scare him a bit considering it was night time and most lights apart from their tank light were off, he may not have seen me clearly and got spooked but its just strange because I've never had an issue in the last 3 months of owning them. I got them as a pair when they were quite young and they have now matured and are getting ready to breed (I think, and hope). It's good to see its not just me as it actually was quite sad to watch I couldn't understand the issue as all the other fish were fine so I knew it wasn't water parameters.

Thanks for the reply Schwack