Aggressive Gouramis, Need Advice

[rallycat]

I keep 5 gouramis in my 29-gal tank- 2 blue, 2-pearl, 1 gold. It seems like the fish are constantly fighting, nipping, or chasing each other around the tank. Since they're constantly scrapping, the less-dominant fish hide in the plants and rocks around the tank for most of the day. I've tried isolating the most aggressive fish for a while, providing hide spots for the smaller fish, etc.
The only other factor I can think of that might be affecting the tank is that 4 of the 5 fish are males. I ask for females usually, but it's hard to discern when the fish are younger.
Do you think adding more gouramis/other fish would keep them out of trouble, since there's alot of free space left in the tank?
Anyway- any advice you guys could give would be great. I'm kinda at a loss as to what steps to take. Thanks! :?

 

[shawmutt]

When the first fish I had for my tank, my future father-in-law's angel, I decided to get gouramis. I bought two, one plain dwarf gourami and one red-bellied one. The red-bellied one bullied the plain one until the plain one died. I bought a bunch more plants for the tank, and made a division in the tank with them. I got another plain gourami, and the red-bellied actively sought him out and bullied him until he too died.

I wrote this for another post a few weeks ago. It seems that some people get these fish and have no problem, other people get these fish and have tons of problems. I was one of the latter. Gouramis are labyrinth fish, related to the Betta--maybe some breeds are more violent towards their own kind than others.

So what did I do? The red-bellied one got sick--I stuck him in my 5 1/2 gallon sick tank, and he died. I got different fish after that. I currently have 9 cardinal tetras and 3 ottos in one tank and 2 cory catfish in another.

 

[jackie]

i'm quite lucky here , i can usually get my fish in pairs , i had a pair of pearl [red bellie] gouramis and a pair of powder blue dwarfs together .no problems at all untill one of the blue dwarfs died . both pairs lived with other fish with very little aggression. but after the blue died the male pearl and the remaining blue were at war. the remaining blue eventually died , we believe from stress. i can only pesume that its best to keep in pairs ,although the males are usually more colourful.does your lfs take back fish, maybe you could take some back and pair the others up. i have to say that i am fortunate to be able to do that ,my lfs is very accomodating..

 

[kestral]

gouramis

I have a gold gourami that is in a 16 gallon tank with a banjo cat. she's the meanest fish I've ever owned. She's never noticed the banjo cat or she would try to kill him just as she has tryed to kill every fish that I've tried to put in there with her. Also, years ago I had a blue gourami that I really enjoyed. He wasn't mean at all. I got another blue gourami and the new one killed the old one. At the time I didn't know the difference between male and female gouramis and I guess they were both males.

 

[Hara]

IMO, you are just about at your limit for fish, unless you add just a couple
of smaller ones. Gouramis are aggressive. Adding more fish is not going to
change that any. If you can take a couple of the males back and trade them
in, it may help.