# Sparkling gourami aggression



## hotweldfire (31 May 2012)

I have a male/female pair of Trichopsis pumila in a 12l nano. No other tank mates (apart from a couple of shrimp I haven't managed to catch and some snails). For the first couple of weeks they seemed pretty happy, with the male following the female around as they explored the tank. There was even some croaking and possible mating behaviour going on.

Now, however, the female is constantly hiding under the hardscape because if she emerges she is chased and attacked by the male. Pretty much relentlessly.

Anything I can do to reduce the aggression or is this tank just too small for two of these fish?


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## BigTom (31 May 2012)

Have you checked there isn't a bubble nest somewhere? The males tend to be most aggressive when defending eggs/fry. _T. pumila_ bubble nests tend to be very small, often just a few bubbles under a leaf somewhere so easy to miss. If so then you may need to remove the female for a while as 12l doesn't give much space for hiding... my pair seem to be OK together when breeding in a 25l though.


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## hotweldfire (1 Jun 2012)

:idea: 

Thank you mate. Rather obvious now you mention it. There's a bit of frogbit in the tank so could be there. Will have a look when the lights come on this morning.

The male is being extremely aggressive. Just saw it kill one of the two remaining shrimp in there before I could get in the tank to stop it. That wasn't nice to watch.

I could shift her to my home nano for a bit. My only concern is all the cherry shrimplets in there. If I do how long you reckon for?


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