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Hello,
after not having seen the female of my new pair of P. nagyi for more than two days I began to worry about her well-being…
The male is always to be seen, not shy, slowly moving through the tank and picking up artemia. No sign of indisposition.
I had a sneaking suspicion about the female being anxious – having seen it being chased around the tank by the male a few days ago.
Today my suspicion was confirmed: I saw the patrolling male get alerted, stare into the java fern – and shoot into the leaves, chasing the female out. The female, being very pale, panicky tried to escape the aggressively chasing male and after dashing through the tank succeeded in hiding among the leaves again.Labyrinth fishes are principally known for their aggressiveness – but I didn’t find clear references on intersexual aggression in paros.
What are your experiences – is it a relatively normal behaviour between male and female, or does it mean that my pair doesn’t make a good couple?There could be more than one reason for this that you are experiencing.
Its not unusual to see the male chasing the female, – this I gather is a way for him to inspire her, or test whether she is ready for mating again. And of course sometimes she is not, and sometimes this ‘chasing’ looks rather hard for the female. I have also at times been worried.
But I have never experienced that it had fatal concequenses, – I do however really believe, that – as you say with most labyrints, – you need to provide the female with options that she can withdraw somewhere. It sounds like you have.
When you report that the female is ‘pale’ – well, that could actually be a sign that she is getting ready to spawn, and that the whole thing is just really normal courting behaviour.
Your male also – it sounds like he is just really eager, –
Of course, there are also couples that does not really make good couples, and where you might see the male attempting like this again and again in wain, – but again, – it may look hard, but I have never seen it be fatal.The less good scenario, which could happen is that you actually accidentially had two males, one sub-dominant and not showing colours, – so that you might have thought it to be a female. In that case the male agression can be serious, though I would never compare them to other labyrintfishes, – the agression is more showing off, but you will see that of course.
Thank you, Helene.
Yes, I think it’s no problem for the female (if it indeed is a female…) to find plenty of hiding places. I am not afraid he might harm her.
And I think it’s a female indeed – I posted a photo showing both, the male displaying, here.
Here is another photo – at this time there was no aggression to be seen, it started a few days later.
I hope you are right and this might be a sign of a forthcoming mating.
🙂 well, definitely a female .. so thats not the problem.
I am sure what you are seeing is normal behaviour, and possible leading up to mating.It can happen of course that the female is not ready, – in which case it can probably be rather a bit hard for her, – but the best you can do is to provide her with good food and options to hide.
It will be interesting to hear how things develop in your tank ..1. It’s a female.
2. It looks rather slim. I does not look like a female ready to spawn.
3. What are you feeding? To get licorice gouramis ready for spawning it needs some time and good food.
4. Very good are mosquito larvae, “glass worms” (weiße Mückenlarven), limited numbers of Grindal or Enchytraeus, freshly hatched (!) Artemeia nauliae, Moina macrocopa or Cyclops. Bad are Daphnia or Artemia which are some days old.
5. Did you see the male displaying already? With “sexy eyes”?
6. Did the female respond with sexy eyes? If not, it is not ripe for spawning.
7. Good feeding is the method you should take. And wait.
Peter FinkeThank you, Peter.
I can not say whether the female is still so slim – I haven’t seen her long enough. The picture is a week old.
I feed very freshly hatched artemia naupliae, Cyclops, micro and glass worms. I haven’t seen them pay any attention to the glass worms. The male is always on it’s way looking for small food – I can’t tell whether the female dares to do so.
The male showed a small attempt of “sexy eyes”, the female didn’t.
I am waiting patiently. I just was afraid that something might be wrong with the male being so aggressive. Your answers calmed me. 🙂
Hello again,
I just wanted to tell how it goes on: Since three or four days the female is wandering relaxed through the tank, no panicky flight anymore.
The male now is less to be seen, I am not quite sure whether it found a natural cave in the big piece of mangrove wood. The artificial caves (2 bamboo canes and a small clay pot) stay unnoticed.
Still, no sexy eyes, but can we call it a soft encounter?
In my opinion, the female shows a more rounded belly than before. And the caudal fin of the male is beginning to show colours as are right and proper. Sorry for the bad quality of the photo – I show it just by means of evidence …
Hello,
I need some help of your experienced eyes again. As you know, I am a beginner with paros ………..
Is it normal in females of nagyi to have this cinnamon brown colour in the dorsal fin? I think this colouring has deepened in the last days. And what about those little shiny dots at the pelvic fins?Some females definitely show some reddish or brownish colour in the dorsal fin. Which reminds me, that we should actually probably also be concerned about photoes of females for the different species, – we tend to focus on the males 🙂
I cannot quite remember if nagyi females are specific in this regard, but I would consider it quite normal with your female.
As for the dots, – its too difficult to distinquish something clear. The only thing I could imagine one should always be a little concerned about is odinium, – it does happen at times with the licorice gouramies. I dont say I am seeing that at all here. But I have had a few times, – and I will say here now also, that I have always been able to treat this particular illness effectively with spirohexol http://fish.aquaristic.net/en/JBL-Spirohexol-20-Tab.html, – so I really recommend that you always have this – just in case.Thank you, Helene – I’ll keep this in mind. I am always aware of Oodinium – but I don’t think the dots are something other than true colouration, not whitish, but with a translucent greenish shimmer.
It was just that I thought about the female probably being another male ……. with the “true” male being nothing but kind of aggressive the whole time.
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