It could be mating behavior, or it could be territorial. Probably are fighting, these fis dont do much chasing, more flaring and liplocking.

 

I still see this behavior a few times a day...especially towards the end of the day - any second opinions on what it might mean?

If they're fighting it sure is a friendly way to go about it!

 

It is only "friendly" because it looks like kissing, which humans interpret as nice and lovey dovey. In the fish world that is not nice, it is fighting behavior. They are biting each other in the mouth, essentially. I don't know how much harm they can cause to each other in doing this. I suppose it depends on how serious they are about it. I would be checking for signs of mouth injuries.

 

Do they have a lot of places to hide or at least have their own territories? 6 gouramis in a 46 gallon sounds a bit tight.

 

The dwarfs each hide out in my floating plants...while my blue roams freely and my Snakeskin drifts slowly monitoring things on the bottom third of the tank. The Pearl's are definitely the most consistantly active...and other than the kissing thing, never show any signs of aggression towards eachother or other gourami's.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for mouth wounds and irritation.

If maybe they were fighting more when I'm not watching, would this be typical behavior for two females? From what I see, it is NOTHING like the high levels of aggression I've seen out of certain variation's of male gouramis (platinum, gold especially).