# Gourami always moving up and down against glass.



## Zissou (Apr 6, 2008)

I picked up a 2" Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami at my LFS the other day, and he's off his rocker. He's fat and healthy and acts completely normal while feeding, but when I'm not in front of the aquarium looking in, he's to the side moving up and down frantically against the glass. He's been doing it all day for the last two days now and he only stops when I feed him. I think the other fish are a little perturbed by his behavior. 

When I think about it, he was the only gourami at the LFS acting this way, but I bought him because he was the prettiest, and I thought maybe he was a new add. I'm starting to wonder if something is wrong with him.

Any ideas? 

Thanks in advance!


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## spinycheek (Apr 26, 2008)

Could be parasites. Fish will rub on things if there is something irritating on their skin like a parasite. Look closely and see if you can identify anything unusual on the scales.


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## seAdams (Jun 2, 2008)

DGs are often skittish and shy, especially when new. My Dwarf Flame did the up and down the glass thing for several days before settling down.

Do you have lots of plants? Any floating plants?

However if he was doing the same thing at the petstore, there could be a problem. I guess you didn't QT him before adding him to your community?


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## reddragon1977 (May 30, 2007)

im not sure what it is but whenever i see that behaviour it means a fatality is soon to come.


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## TLH (Apr 20, 2008)

It's a sign of stress of being moved from one tank to another imho. Hopefully he'll settle in and stop doing this. Planting quite heavily so he can't see very far may help him feel more secure.


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## Walking_Target (Jul 16, 2008)

It can also be a sign of boredom. If you don't have enough big bushy plants, breaks in the line of sight or little hidey-holes, you fish could just be really bored. 

Or at least that's what that behavior is with Bettas and our Gold Gourami.


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## CaffeinatedCake (Jun 19, 2008)

my two DN gourami did the same thing, but eventually calmed down in a few days.

Now they just do it when they can see the food containers or theres somthing new outside of their tank, lol.

Another way to keep him calm and busy would to get him a buddy [another Dwarf gourami], they'll shoal around and play and chase each other [unless you get ones that don't get along well.. never had a problem with that though ^^]

My two spend 80% of their time swimming together and "playing", even my Baby honey gourami tries to go with them, rofl.

I wouldn't be too concerned unless he's thrashing a lot or carries on for more then a week or so. Might want to check your water along with as close an inspection on him as you can get, just to be safe.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

lots of fish do this. no worries.


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## kotoeloncat (Apr 12, 2006)

actually all my new fishes does this within the first 2-3 days


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## Zissou (Apr 6, 2008)

He's still doing it, albeit at a much slower pace today, maybe he's getting tired. I looked him over, saw two questionable dots on his tail yesterday, now there's only one. BTW this is in a quarantine tank.

He even does it at night, with all the lights off. However my computer monitor is about four feet away, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

I'll just keep an eye on him and the rest of the fish. Thanks!


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

It's called "pacing" and can be a sign of stress, excitement, and/or boredom.

Having things to do and places to hide in a tank usually reduces and elimates this behavior.

One thing that I do in my tanks is feed different varieties of foods in different parts of the tank. This keeps my fish hunting around through the plants all day for food (especially when I feed sinking wafers) instead of pacing back and forth in front of the glass. 

Hopefully once you move the fish into your main tank there will be more things, including other live fish, to interact with.


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## seAdams (Jun 2, 2008)

My DG was very stressed in the QT tank with no other fish in there even though he did have plants to hide in.

When I moved him into my 20 gal planted community tank, his personality changed completely and he loved spending the day picking around the plants and bossing my other fish around.

Even so, he was very shy and skittish for days and would scoot off and hide when I approached and opened the tank lid. He calmed down though and eventually rushed out with the other fish for his food. I found that bloodworms worked best to get him out of hiding!

I did lose two other DGs though to what I think may have been iridovirus. Both looked great and ate well for a couple weeks, and then one day just stayed on the bottom, started twitching, refused food and were dead within 24 hours.


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