Aggressive Honey Gourami

[ChrisK]

I have 3 honey gouramis & 8 harlequIn Rasboras in a 20 gallon planted tank. The largest gourami has become quite aggressive and territorial. Chasing the other fish. I don’t see any eggs or nests. Any ideas how to deal with this?

[Tlindsey]

On 7/7/2024 at 12:05 PM, ChrisK said:

I have 3 honey gouramis & 8 harlequIn Rasboras in a 20 gallon planted tank. The largest gourami has become quite aggressive and territorial. Chasing the other fish. I don’t see any eggs or nests. Any ideas how to deal with this?

Welcome to the forum. 

The only thing you could do is rehome the large aggressive one or rehome the 2 smaller individuals. @ChrisK

Edited July 7 by Tlindsey

[Lennie]

Can you share a picture of the aggressive fish please? 

[Rube_Goldfish]

And maybe a full tank shot? It's possible that hardscape and plants can be used to create sight line breaks.

[Tony s]

My first thought was maybe someone got a little gold gourami in the honey gourami tank  🤣

[ChrisK]

Here are a few photos 

[EricksonAquatics]

Looks to me like a thick lipped gourami, often confused with a honey gourami. I believe they are more aggressive than your typical honey.

do the other two look similar to this guy?

Might be in your best interest to rehome him, but I’d like to hear others’ thoughts. 

Edited July 7 by EricksonAquatics

[ChrisK]

the other 2 are smaller, how can you tell the difference

[AtomicSunfish]

As a general rule with anabantoids, you may be able to keep females together, and possibly males with females, but you cannot keep males together. Even the gentle honey gourami shows male-male territorial aggression, which can lead to the death of the subordinate male.

That lovely gourami in the pic does appear to be male. I would either keep him without the other two, or else remove him and keep one (and possibly both) of the others. If you do opt to keep the other two, don’t be surprised if one of them hyperdominates the other one. In which case, here we go again!

Edited July 8 by AtomicSunfish

[Lennie]

As mentioned above that’s not a honey gourami, it is the domestic color of thicklipped gourami

 

Honeys are very peaceful and unexpected to have problems with. Thats why I wanted to ask for a picture

 

You can check out the belowmentioned topic to notice the difference between them

 

Edited July 8 by Lennie

[ChrisK]

Here are photos of the other two

Do you think that they are also thick lipped rather than honey gourami? Any idea if they are male or female 

[Lennie]

On 7/8/2024 at 8:32 PM, ChrisK said:

Here are photos of the other two

Do you think that they are also thick lipped rather than honey gourami? Any idea if they are male or female 

These are also thicklipped, and they look like females. The top fins are very rounded unlike your male

 

 

[ChrisK]

Do the females tend to be more peaceful 

[AtomicSunfish]

On 7/8/2024 at 12:51 PM, ChrisK said:

Do the females tend to be more peaceful 

Yes, female gouramis are less aggressive than the males.

[Lennie]

On 7/8/2024 at 8:51 PM, ChrisK said:

Do the females tend to be more peaceful 

I personally think there is no exact answer to that.

 

Usually breeding comes with aggression for many species. So keeping only females, so no potential breeding, sounds like a good way to increase the chances of peaceful actions. But based on some group dynamics, females may fight for dominance too. My gold gourami females were crazy aggressive versus each other once they reached adulthood.

My sparkling gourami males were in total combat mode for territorial behaviors, but my gold male gourami was an angel even tho it is known to be an agressive species.

 

I have never kept thicklippeds so I can't comment on that one. @Cinnebuns may help as she kept thicklippeds

Edited July 8 by Lennie