Gourami behavior

[mxfj40]

My 34 gal. tank is now on its 43rd day and it just finished cycling. My ammonia and nitrites have returned to zero.We have 12 platys,4 mollies and one betta that survived from day one. My tank cycled in 40 days and I didnt lose any of these 17 fish(thanks to your forum) Now I would like add a few more fish with a little variety.The platys/mollies are small now.I dont think the tank will be overcrowded until they reach full size.I was thinking about a couple of powder blue gouramis and a few hatchet fish. The girl at PETSMART said that if you put more than one Gourami in the tank with these others they will pick on all the other fish. She said this will be worse if I added a male and female.Is this true? Can I add two males and be safe?

 

[shawmutt]

One of the first fish I got were gouramis. I got a red bellied gourami and a regular one. Well the red bellied was a terror...it chased and nipped the regular gourami until it died. I put more plants in the tank, figuring that if they had two different sides, the red bellied would be happy. I went out and bought another regular one, and the red bellied would actively search out the regular one to nip at it, and it died. The red bellied stayed alone in the tank until it died a month later. So I can't say I've had good experience with gouramis.

 

[Guest]

So I can't say I've had good experience with gouramis

Neither have I. you can get well beahved ones, or super -aggro ones, or something in between, Gouramis are unpredictable.

 

[jackie]

it seemed that maybe i've had a better experience with gouramis, tho now i'beginning to wonder... i had amale and female for two years and they got on really well ,untill i added an angel.. the angel settled in nicely untill he became the biggest fish in the tank ,then he started to become an absolute nightmare bullying the gouramis and keeping one in each corner, the female eventually clamped fins and tho i did what i could she didnt survive. the angel went back to the lfs and it seemed the male went into mourning.. i'm now thinking of replacing the female but am being to get concerned about the aggro some of them seem to cause.. is this the norm with gouramis or the exception

 

[jackie]

it seemed that maybe i've had a better experience with gouramis, tho now i'beginning to wonder... i had amale and female for two years and they got on really well ,untill i added an angel.. the angel settled in nicely untill he became the biggest fish in the tank ,then he started to become an absolute nightmare bullying the gouramis and keeping one in each corner, the female eventually clamped fins and tho i did what i could she didnt survive. the angel went back to the lfs and it seemed the male went into mourning.. i'm now thinking of replacing the female but am being to get concerned about the aggro some of them seem to cause.. is this the norm with gouramis or the exception

 

[zephyr]

I have had a pair of dwarf gouramis, a pair of honey gouramis and a gold gourami all in a 10 gallon and they were never bothering each other ever. I've had dwarf gouramis and goldgouramis with tetras and livebears and there hasn't been any problem. From all my experiences with gouramis I have never found them agressive. I spose I must have just been lucky
Justin

 

[jasonit]

I have a pair of pearl gouramis and they have never bothered any of their smaller tankmates. They are very content with each other. I also have a pair of dwarf powder blue gouramis - no problems with them either. They share the tank with Neons and guppies.

 

[Brandon]

Generally, the Dwarf Gouramis (your Powder Blues, Flame, Male Dwarf) and a few other varieties are not that aggressive unless two males are crowded into too small a tank. Pearl Gouramis, Honey, Sunset, Platinums, and Opalines fall into this category to an extent as well. On the otherhand the Blue Gourami, Gold Gourami, Giant Gourami, Kissing Gourami, Moonlight Gourami, and all the Paradise Fish can be pretty bullyish most of the time. You have to be more careful when choosing tank mates for these guys, especially in a smaller tank. With the Dwarf Gouramis, you usually see more males available if any females. The females are a drab silver color not very appealing at all and usually seen less often in LFS's.

 

[shawmutt]

I have a 29 gallon well-planted tank with plenty of hiding space, so it wasn't the size of the tank. However, I think the red-bellied was exceptionally agressive, the regular gouramis were fine. I have a feeling that if I got two regular gouramis, they would have been fine.

By the way--I keep on saying "regular gouramis." The kind I'm talking about were the only gouramis that didn't have a descriptive name, just "dwarf gouramis."

 

[jackie]

you don't say what the sexes of you gouramis are , tho the red bellie is obviously a male.. i think they are better kept in pairs , although the females are not so attractive it does keep the males attention away from each other, cutting down on any aggression , although i,ve not actually had any real problems,my red honey gourami died about six months ago and the male turned absolutely mad , he started to attack the other fish as well as the pearl gouramis,we managed to survive the occasion and he eventually settled down , only to die a short while later.. we suspect from stress.we have never had any problems with our male pearl , in fact we have decided to get a new female to keep him company.... famous last words ... hope i get a nice friendly one... jackie