Neon Dwarf Gourami & gold gouramie

Question
Hallo Karen.

I think it might be time for me to get rid of my gold gourami it is a female but I see that she chases some of the other gouramis constantly she is about 3.5 inches long, I am going to watch her for this week and I've she keeps on chasing the other fish I am taking her back. Is it normal for a female golden gourami to act like this? What do you think I must do? I bought 3 paradise fish in september and I took the last one back on the weekend it looks like the guy at the lfs sold me 3 males instead of 1 male and 2 females. I realised this every time I took the fish back. It also chased my fishes the whole time. My one poor blue powder dwarf gourami got a good beating. But I hope that the tail fins will recover soon. My neon dwarf male gourami is acting a bit shy is that normal it does eventually come out when I feed them but otherwise he is just hiding most of the time. Please give me some info from your side. My nitrates seems to be stable the last few weeks I am glad that, my nitrate problem I had is something from the past know.

Regards.
Hannes Viviers.

Answer
Dear Hannes,
I'm really sorry to hear about all the trouble you have been dealing with lately...
It is really odd that your female Gold Gourami is behaving so aggressive towards the other fish. This usually isn't normal behavior for these gouramis. Is she mainly chasing other gouramis? There could be a reasonable explanation for that because sometimes gold gouramis and the other color variants of the original (three-spot gourami) sometimes don't want to tolerate another similar gourami in their territory. Unfortunately there is often very little you can do about it. It's another one of those, just try and see it sort of things. I current keep a male three-spot gourami and a male Dwarf Gourami together in the same aquarium with absolutely no aggression problems at all. But this is in a large aquarium with many retreats should any disputes emerge.
I'm really sorry you have to take back the gold gourami, they are such a beautiful fish.

Paradise fish can tend to be very intolerant of even other non-gourami fish as well. The males especially tend to do best in a species tank only. Females aren't as magnificent as the males (but still very lovely) and they seem to be much less aggressive.

It sounds like your neon Dwarf gourami may be shy because of any other aggressive going on in the aquarium. If they are not getting chased at all by the other fish, dwarf gouramis will come out and swim happily along even rather boisterous species.

There may simply not be enough room for all the gourami species you have been trying to keep. Somehow you will have to find a good combination of fish to establish a peaceful aquarium. I am happy to help you out with anymore questions you may have.

Best wishes,
Karen~