Honey Gourami - Turned into total jerk

Hello everyone,
Just wondering if this is a phase that will pass or if I need some kind of intervention for my tank.

My tank is a Ada-60p and up until a few days ago I had a peaceful, wonderful little community of fish.

Here's my stock list;

2 Nerites
9 Amano Shrimp
15 espeI tetras
2 Honey Gouramis (1 male, 1 female)

It all started when my male Gourami decided he wanted to mate with the female and made bubble nests that encompassed at least a third of the whole tank. They started doing a really cute courtship dance, and it seemed like everything was going well. I never saw her lay any eggs or the male fertilize them but I can't say for sure it didn't happen.

Now out of the blue he's turned into a little tank tyrant, relentlessly chasing her around the tank, pressing her up against the glass and trying to lead her up to the bubble nest but as soon as he turns his back, she darts away and hides. He doesn't seem to be nipping at her, just herding back to where his nest is.

All of the espeI tetras are being totally harassed by him as well, when before he "went into heat" they would totally ignore each other, now they spend all day hiding as well.

Luckily my tank is extremely heavily planted so there are plenty of hiding spots for everyone, and I know generally why this is all happening, just wondering if there is something I can do. Will his mating frenzy die off or if there is some intervention required? I don't have another tank at the moment to move anyone to, so I'm hoping I can ride this out.

Thanks in advance!

Here's a picture of the tank to give you an idea of how it looks.

 

very nice aquascape you got there, congrats. I have a honey gourami in my smaller tank with a few black skirt tetras and has a quite dominant personality but they coexist well. I have no other gouramis though.

 

Welcome to the forum! By the looks of your aquarium, you know your stuff

With regards to your predicament, one option would be to add 2 more females to your tank to spread out the stress. I know this is what is recommended for keeping multiple dwarf gouramis in a single tank.

Another option is to just wait. Sometimes, the female isn't quite ready to mate yet. Before my GBRs spawned, my male would pursue the females all around the tank for several minutes, only to separate himself later. After a while, the female became ready to lay eggs and cozied up to the male.

I've only kept a single male honey gourami before, so I can't definitively tell you what's going on, but I hope this helps.

 

Welcome to Fish Lore, djbarsanti! That is one lovely tank you have there, props to your hard work.

My experience with mixing male and female gourami wasn't great. I had a male pearl with three female pearls who ended up doing the same thing yours is doing. I gave it three weeks before I separated them, I couldn't imagine being in their fishy shoes.

Adding females as Charles556 suggested may help but as mentioned above, he could just expand his harassment.

Good luck! I'd be interested to know what you choose to do and how everything works out!

 

When I went into my office later in the evening, they were both sound asleep cuddled up together... maybe they've made up

Thanks for the tips and advice, much appreciated!