Assesment of a roughly 10 year old tank…
Hi Hank, Just touching base with you again. Yes, I kind of figured for the most part that Gouramis are peaceful, but maybe any aggressiveness has been magnified more so recently with excessive inbreeding. I can start to understand them establishing territories in a tank where this can be done (with plants and rocks as defining this), as Steve points out, but then all my community tanks were always well planted — and no aggression was ever seen. I’ve never owned a Kissing Gourami as they never held any interest for me. As I understand it, their well-known kissing behavior is not an act of affection, but instead an act of aggression to their own kind, even if in a mild enough way so as to have us fooled when we see this. I have seen and heard tales of them using this behavior on the sides of other fish.
Blue Gouramis are well known for their aggressiveness, although I’m not sure if they’re all like that. Tghey certainly have earned a bad reputation for this though as one of the worst. I almost forgot about the Buenos Aires Tetras. When I first started, I wanted to get some because of their attractiveness, but soon put that idea to rest after reading what Innes had to say about them.
As for the Serpaes, and I believe there are at least 6 different species in this closely related Callistus group, I’ve been reading accounts of them being fin-nippers lately, but find it hard to believe. Next, they’ll accuse Neons of this! Maybe some people are feeding these fish ground up Pirana meat!
So THAT’S the story about Blind Cave Tets!!! I learned real early that they were fin nippers, and that being one of the reasons, I never had them. But I didn’t know until you just mentioned it that this behavior was not necessarily aggressiveness, but a natural reaction to them grabbing any possible food their mouth may come in contact with. That figures now, with them not being able to see but only to feel a possible meal. Its unfortunate for the other fish though! Take care, catch you next time. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
