I've had 2 gold gouramis for about a year, I got them when they were very small. They always have chased each other about but it has always looked non-aggressive.

Over the last few days I've noticed that their behaviour has changed. One has suddenly darkened in colour and is being aggressive to the other fish, chasing them but hasn't hurt anyone yet... The 2 gold gouramis line up head to head and it looks at though they are either kissing or biting? Why would they do this?

I assume they are reaching sexual maturity now and are becoming territorial. I think they are 2 males but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm very fond of these two but they are the only troublemakers in the tank now and not fair on the other fish...

I could separate them and put one in another community tank but its only about 100L and too small I think, plus the fish are all very small in there.

What should I do with this pair?!

gold gouramis are quie easy to sex - look at the bottom find - below the tail, if the fin is rounded it is a female if it is pointed it is a male.

you don't mentioned what size tank they are in and what else you have in your tank - ie fish and plants.

I have several gold and blue gouramis in my tank of both sexes and sometimes they chase each other or other fish but they are not aggressive.

I would say watch them but you could always move a few things around in your tank to see if that calms them down

thanks peanuts, i think they are both male, they are definitely the same, here is a pic of one of them do you think he is a boy?!

they are in a 140-150L tank with 2 decent sized java ferns, a few banana plants that are trying to establish themselves and indian fern that is floating throughout most of the tank.

their tankmates include 2 pearl gouramis, a honey red dwarf gouramis, 2 female fighters, 2 angel fish, 3 silver dollars, a few flying fox and the rest are bottom dwellers. everyone in this tank gets along very well with the exception of the gold gouramis and the fighters taking an initial dislike to the dwarf gouramis (they are not bothered by him now).

have you heard of them biting/kissing each other before? it does look quite aggressive. at the moment they are fine, it seems to be more in the evening when they behave strangely.

sorry about bad pic i don't know how to turn the flash off on my camera!

that top picture looks like a female to me - the fin is rounded - if it was a male it would be pointed. can't quite tell with the second pic.

the behaviour you are mentioning is more common for kissing gourami and that is showing who is boss. I haven't seen it with gold's before but that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen.

I think that they are just sorting out the pecking order and once this is established they should settle down.

females eh! good to know at last, their fin is pretty round but has a tiny point to it so i wasn't sure. once you see the other sex of fish you are able to make a simple comparison!

hopefully they will settle down and stop their kissing! they don't seem to be hurting anyone, mainly just chasing and they seem calmer today. having said that the more dominant one really doesn't like the silver dollars and is currently chasing them away if they come near her...!

expensive pump mate!! good 1! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

are they expensive?! it was part of a bulk deal with a second hand tank! works well

I found the gold gouramis were the most aggressive out of all my gouramis I ended up just keeping one gold and had a whole lot of different sort and they were all female which helped.

When they come into maturity and are ready to mate you will see they get a big belly and look like they swallowed a marble. They like mid water plants.

the females dont normally colour up like that tho and they dont tend to chase ea other like the males , my 2 males are fighting so bad i have to swap 1 for a female if i can

see I had two females and boy did they fight one was just relentless and they were both definitely females.

hopefully my two have sorted out their territorial business! they have both been pretty placid for the last 24 hours.

they have two big amazon swords not java ferns, i wrote the wrong name before.

there are plenty of places to hide in the tank.

I have a pair and they scrap all the time the male beats the crap outta the female. she jumped out a little while ago trying to get away from him lucky I was watching

are they expensive?! it was part of a bulk deal with a second hand tank! works well

250-300 at fish shop mate!! lucky you ! germany made !

well i never! the whole set up with tank, filter, stand, several ornaments etc was less than that!