Hello everyone
I have 2 females and 3 males yellow honey gourami in a 55 heavily planted community tank. The 3 males have their own floating nests which they guard from intruders. Everything was perfect until one male was banished to hide in plants in the bottom of the tank by the other gouramis. Would adding another female help or is there something better I should do? Thank you!
Tricky. In general male gouramis are aggressive towards their own kind. 3 is always a difficult number as it allows the others to 'band against' the weakest male. However, it doesn't mean it would stop there.
Right now, adding another female won't work as the lowest ranking male has already been demoted to the bottom. I know it is a lot of work but what could work is to take out the gouramis, rearrange the tank completely, introduce the demoted male first with the 2 females, let them establish themselves for a few days, add another female or even 2 and then introduce the other 2 males.
If you can't do that for whatever reason, stick with 1 male and 2 females and return or swap the other males for females or another fish.
Thank you so much for the advice! With 3 males and 2 females, it was just a question of time before running into trouble. It's impossible to tell if they are males or females when we purchase them, as they aren't mature yet.
Any idea, where I could swap my little male for a mature female yellow honey gourami in Ottawa?
Thanks again!