Can two male dwarf gourami's coexist?

[dmac]

I purchased a Red Fire Dwarf Gourami and I absolutely love it. Its really cool looking and it actively swims up and down around the tank...................I would like to add 1 more male, possibly a powder blue dwarf or gold or something............Will the two males fight and become territorial or coexist peacefully?

 

[Zagz]

It is quite possible they will become territorial. What size tank do you have? The larger the tank the better the chances they can co-exsist.

 

[dmac]

30g tall hex

 

[Zagz]

You can try it and see, depending on the other tankmates it might work. Be prepared though and have a place to put the new fish if any aggression arises. I have 3 opaline and one powder blue gourami in my 29 gal bowfront and no aggression in a year.

When introducing the new gourami, do a pwc and move the ornaments around a bit to sneak the new fish in. That will also help with territorial issues.

 

[Puriti]

I've had two dwarf gouramis before in a 10 and 20 gal tank (it's what I had) and they coexisted, they just would chase each other around or my big blue gourami would chase them...but yeah if you have a large enough tank and enough places for them to call a territory it should work o.o

 

[Ky'smommy]

i had four in my 80g and they are fine
but thats like 20 gallons each.lol
but they all hang out together so i dont know

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I had 2 male fire red dwarf gouramis in a 26G and they were perfectly fine. Had lots of hiding places and plants.

 

[tropicfishman]

most likely not, all the articles I have read on them says they won't tolerate the same sex and species

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I purchased a Red Fire Dwarf Gourami and I absolutely love it. Its really cool looking and it actively swims up and down around the tank...................I would like to add 1 more male, possibly a powder blue dwarf or gold or something............Will the two males fight and become territorial or coexist peacefully?

You should be fine with 2 males. Like I was saying above, I had 2 in my 26G and they did fine up until some health issues took one of them. Then after his buddy was gone, the other didn't last long.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

I have 2 in a 46 gallon tank and when I tried adding more it was a disaster. I ended up calling it quits and settled with the 2. They get along great for the most part. They seem to have split the tank in half, one claimed one side and the other claimed the other side. They will ocassionally chase each other, but nothing major. In your situation, I woiuld probably just stick with the 2. Although, as mentioned you can give it a shot. Just be sure to have a back up plan in case it doesn't work out.

 

[dmac]

Thanks all. I'm going to give it a shot with 1 more. I have a fairly heavily planted tank, and 2 rock sets to hide in, so its pretty camouflaged down the bottom. We'll see how it goes.

 

[HannahJ]

What you might do to make the transistion easier is to move around all of the decoration in your tank so that the original gourami's territory is broken up, and he'll be a lot less likely to attack the new fish, since he'll be re-establishing territory while the new guy establishes his own .

 

[DPirateRoberts]

I had two males in a 20 gallon and then upgraded their home to a 55 gallon a couple of years ago. The males fought constantly in the 20 gal. When they had more space, they didn't fight as much but it was very evident that each had their areas that they were master of.
I think in a hex tank of that size, they may get in each other's face quite often. Just my humble opinion...

 

[kaz]

my two get along and do no damage but they do chase each other silly, kind of territorial and slap each other with their tail

 

[dmac]

so I dropped in the blue dwarf and 2 platies and a molly today.........The Red fire dwarf doesn't appear too happy.

He scoped it out a bit and then chased the blue gourami around a bit.....Every now and then he chases off the sunburst platy.

I'm watching them careful, he seems most occupied with the blue male gourami......But most of the time they seem to be ok doing their own thing sperate from one another.

One thing I've noticed is how much brighter and more beautiful the blue gourami looks under my aquarium light than in the dull tanks of the LFS.

 

[Andos99]

I've never had male gourami's exist in harmony. I've tried more than once with varying results....ultimately, one male dominates and the weaker fish slowly deteriorates and dies which can take several months.

 

[kitbasher]

I have two male gourami's and one female in my wife's 45g. Occasionally one will chase another one around. Sometimes its one of the blues chasing the other blue male or one of the males is chasing the golden female. Its not uncommon to see the three together at one time, and then as far apart as is possible in that tank the next.

 

[dmac]

Well 24 hours later things seem to be going well!

The tormenting has calmed way down, and now they mostly keep their space, but occasionally I see them almost swimming in stride together! then randomly the red fire will turn his attention to the blue and make a half hearted lunge towards him..........Not like yesterday when he would chase him round the tank.