# Honey Gourami spawning/aggression



## Mnemia (Nov 23, 2004)

In an effort to improve my lighting, I removed the acrylic cover on my Coralife PC 1x65W lighting fixture yesterday, so that the light is just sitting on top of my glass-covered tank.

This made things noticably brighter, and the plants started pearling a lot better, etc. I was pleased until I realized that the lighting change had apparently triggered spawning behavior in one of my male sunset honey gouramis (I don't have any females in there). He has built a large bubblenest on the surface, and turned scarlet red. It's fascinating behavior, but he's SUPER territorial and aggressive right now. I understand this is normal, but I've never seen any fish act as aggressively as he is right now. He's even chasing an SAE that is twice his size! Nothing can even get close to "his" half of the tank without getting chased down and nipped.

Since I'm not trying to breed him, when will this behavior stop? I'm slightly concerned about my other fish.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I haven't kept any Gourami's for quite some time, but I'm guessing that without any females in the tank he should settle down within a week or so - or once the newness of the pretty light goes away....


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## Simpte 27 (Jul 16, 2004)

While never keeping gouramis myself I do know they are identicle to betta sp.
It could take a cpl of days to several weeks for him to realize there will not be a female in his future. Removing the glass also increased the heat up there (albeit very little). Could have signaled a seasonal change to him (like winter to spring). You could destroy the nest and see if he gives up on it or just wait it out. He may make another, he may say "oh well, maybe next time." No way to be for sure but they wont generally harm other fish but just drive them away.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I keep Gouramis and have never seen my males build a nest unless there was a female with them. It could be the change in lighting that caused the behavoir or it could be just a coinsidence. However once he relizes there is no females to reproduce with he should give up the effort, how long this will take I don't know. The way he is acting now is normal, he is just protecting his nest. He sould not harm your other fish just chase them away.


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## Mnemia (Nov 23, 2004)

Thanks everyone.
I did a partial water change, which messed up his nest somewhat. He made a bit of a start on rebuilding it, but it doesn't seem to have lasted too long. I was away for the weekend, and when I came back he seems to have calmed down and changed back to his normal, placid self.

Not sure if the lighting did it, but I tested the water and nothing else that I can figure out changed from normal conditions in the tank. I did some searches and I saw a number of people who breed gouramis/bettas/etc saying that lighting changes are sometimes used to induce or trigger spawning, so maybe that's what did it. Could be coincidental, too though. Who knows, but it at least seems like a plausible theory considering that I've never seen any of my male gouramis do this before with no females present and it happened with 12 hours of my removing the acrylic.

Thanks again for all the great help I've gotten on here. I'm really enjoying my first foray into planted tanks, and at the very least the water quality and health of my fish are better than any fish-only tank I've had in the past. Maybe soon I'll be bold enough to ask for aquascaping advice, now that I'm starting to get the technical aspects nailed down a little better!


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