Urgent help - Gouramis

Hi, i have a pair of three spot gouramis, a male and female, in the last few weeks the male has become very aggresive to every other fish in the tank including the female gourami, we think that it is because they are spawning and all the other fish have been scared down to one end of the tank, it is a bit of a coinsidence that the gourami seems to protecting something down the end of the tank with the air pump, could he think that the bubbles that collect on the surface is his nest or something?
We might get rid of him tomorrow if he has not calmed down but i don't really want to, it is a lovely fish
In the next couple of weeks we will have a 6 foot tank set up and running, will putting him in a bigger tank help stop the aggression, or is it just better to swap him for another female


Thanks

James

OK, we are going to se how it goes in the new 6 foot tank next week, it arrives on thursday and it would be cycled after a week and a bit, so this may distract the gourami enough to leave the other fish alone. the extra aggression my have been caused by the introduction of a new fish, Geophagus Jurupari, he is about the same size as the gourami and that may be why.

James

Geophagus Jurupari a.k.a The Demon Fish

I'd have thought that the aggresion was due to your male wanting to create a territoty. If it was because of the Jurupari it would probably not be aggresive to the others.

Thanks Jim, i think you are right about the territory, it is probably more agressive to the geophagus because it would not move
it's weird though, because there is nothing down his end of the tank to protect....

Thanks Again

James



PS: I am officially getting a 6 foot tank , it will arrive Thursday and maybe the gourami will be better in there