2 * Male Dwarf Gourami

Alkers

I was up in Aquatic Village over the weekend and picked up a pair of dwarf gourami. I didn't notice till I got home but it appears I've got two males instead of the intended male and female.

Can anyone confirm these are two male fish (bearing in mind they're young)?





Secondly, has anyone any experience of keeping two males in the one tank, it's a Vision 180.

Apologies for the poor photos, I can't take pics of my fish to save my life!

Thanks

penev10

I'm not an expert but you'll know soon enough if they are 2 males. They'll challenge each other when they enter the other's territory, they'll build bubble nests (although it's not unheard of for a female to blow bubbles too).

A female should be drab in colour and have smaller fins but I've found I can't always tell.

Cherry Blossom

I thought males would only build bubble nests if there was also a female in the tank?

penev10

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

I thought males would only build bubble nests if there was also a female in the tank?

I've had 3 Dwarf Gouramis and two of them would build small bubble nests daily.

I've seen videos where Bettas would build a full bubble nests and guard them against phantom fish!

kylith

Are they trying to kick the sh*t out of each other? That's a sure sign.

You may have a tank big enough for them to each have a territory, so they're happy. The only time I got a male/female combo he harassed her to death, so if you're getting more than one gourami I'd recommend getting several females.

Alkers

Well my initial cause for concern may have been well founded, despite me never observing any much interaction between the two, one of them was hardly moving yesterday and after a partial water change and normal water tests, he was dead this morning.

OnDraught

Simona1986 wrote: »

Well my initial cause for concern may have been well founded, despite me never observing any much interaction between the two, one of them was hardly moving yesterday and after a partial water change and normal water tests, he was dead this morning.

They would have been fine usually. The problem here is that the second fish in your pictures is showing severe signs of the iridovirus. This is common in Singapore bred dwarf gourami. You don't really need to worry about it spreading to any other fish apart from the other dwarf gourami who most likely already has it.

You can avoid this in future by asking shops where their fish are imported from. While most fish are bred in Singapore some of the better shops buy from English suppliers who hold the fish for a while before moving on to the shops.

Alkers

OnDraught wrote: »

They would have been fine usually. The problem here is that the second fish is showing severe signs of the iridovirus. This is common in Singapore bred dwarf gourami. You don't really need to worry about it spreading to any other fish apart from the other dwarf gourami who most likely already has it.

You can avoid this in future by asking shops where their fish are imported from. While most fish are bred in Singapore some of the better shops buy from English suppliers who hold the fish for a while before moving on to the shops.

Interesting, I got them in Aquatic Village, who I always understood to be a reputable supplier.

OnDraught

Simona1986 wrote: »

Interesting, I got them in Aquatic Village, who I always understood to be a reputable supplier.

If they sold you them gouramis in the last couple of weeks they should have known there was something wrong with the second one. Unless it was a new member of staff. This may have been the case if they thought that was a male and female too.

ted1

Are the females not silver ? That’s what I was told in seahorse aquarium.

OnDraught

ted1 wrote: »

Are the females not silver ? That’s what I was told in seahorse aquarium.

They are.