Path: utzoo!hoptoad!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpa!steveb
From: steveb@ihlpa.ATT.COM (S.R. Bodenstab)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: aggressive gourami
Message-ID: <7629@ihlpa.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Apr 88 18:11:55 GMT
References: <7621@ihlpa.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: steveb@ihlpa.UUCP (S.R. Bodenstab)
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, IL
Lines: 29

In article <7621@ihlpa.ATT.COM> chinwall@ihlpa.UUCP (Chinwalla,J.M.) writes:
>I recently got a second gourami the same size as the larger
>fish.  The first, larger gourami was attacking the plastic bag
>that held the new gourami.  Then, it started chasing it like
>it did with the first fish.  This one chased back for a while
>but eventually retired to the corner like the first and died.
>What is going on here?

I had a similar experience:  I purchased a blue (three-spot)
gourami followed, about three weeks later, by an opaline gourami
only slightly smaller in size than the blue.  The blue went on
the attack immediately upon introduction of the newcomer and made
its life miserable through chasing, fin nipping, etc. for about
a week or so.  They seemed to settle down, after that, into a
grudging tolerance of one another, and that's where things stand
today.

About all I've been able to surmise is that both of my fish are
males and, though they coexist well with other families of
community fish, appear to be either territorial or instinctively
need to establish a "pecking order" (i.e. which one gets to be
the "bull-moose" so to speak).  I've never come across any
reference to this kind of behavior in anything I've ever read
concerning gourami, however.

-- 

Steven R. Bodenstab                 UUCP:  ...!ihnp4!ihsybil!srb
AT&T Bell Laboratories