Should I get 1 male dwarf gourami, or a pair?

[ryorgason]

I am setting up a new 10 gal, so it's time to figure out what to put in it, and how to rearrange my 30 gal. Currently I have 2 female bettas, 6 x-ray tetras, 3 khuli loaches, 2 mystery snails, and 1 lonely panda cory in my 30 gal. I am going to pick up a couple more cories today and put them in my 10 gal for quarantine.

I would really like to have a male betta and a gourami, but not necessarily in the same tank, as I don't know if they would get along. Would the gourami be more likely to get along with female bettas than with a male one? Here are some stocking ideas I've been thinking of, but I'm not completely sure on compatibility.

30 gal: 1 gourami, 1 male or 2-3 female bettas, 6 x-ray tetras, 3 khuli loaches, 3 upside down catfish, maybe a small pleco? I don't know anything about plecos, yet, but I'd like to look into possibly getting one. May be a bit overstocked here.

10 gal: either 1 male betta and 6 cories, or 2-3 female bettas and 3 cories, maybe put the snails in here too. Would that be too overstocked?

If anyone has experience keeping gouramis and bettas together, I'd love to hear about it, along with any other thoughts on my setup! I'm still open to new suggestions.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

gouramis and bettas should NOT be kept together (male or female)
On the same note, any fish with long flowing fins (goldfish, guppies and sometimes angels and mollies) should not be kept with either gouramis and bettas.

From experience - if you plan to keep more than 1 gourami in a tank.
There should be 10 gallons per gourami and lots of hiding places.

your stocking ideas sound good.
Just don't keep bettas/gouramis together.

 

[7Enigma]

The answer is it depends. Every fish is different and there have been several (sometimes heated) discussions on this and other forums on this same topic. If you really want them you will need to be willing to return one if they show aggression towards one another. You might get lucky, you might not, but what is NOT acceptable is to see them constantly battling and keep them together.

If I was to try this my first rule would be to find 2 fish that had similar aggression levels with their OWN species. It will be difficult since you already have the bettas, but when shopping for the gourami I would try to find one that is not too aggressive, nor too passive.

I would recommend against it, but people are successful at keeping these two in the same tank. This only applies to your 30gallon as the #1 rule of semi-aggressive/aggresive species keeping is to have ample hiding spots and as much water as possible. Putting a gourami and a betta in a 10 gallon barebottom would IMO be disastrous.

 

[theotheragentm]

I would recommend against Gouramis in anything smaller than a 20 gallon. The reason is that they can be quite skittish. Since they dart up and down for air, I sometimes see them dashing around when I move too quickly around the tank and running into ornaments, because of their haste. The more room they have, the better it is for them. I have a 55-gallon and sometimes I wonder if my full grown Gourami should be in there with the way this particular one moves.

 

[ryorgason]

Just for clarification, I am talking about dwarf gouramis, I see I failed to mention that previously. One of my bettas commited suicide, so I only have one now. My new plan is to get one male or a male and female gourami, and put them in my 10 gal for quarantine. I will also move my betta to my 2.5 gal so that she will not have an established territory in the 30 gal. After the quarantine, I will introduce the gourami(s) and the betta to the 30 gal at the same time, and keep a very close eye on them. If there are any problems, I will move the betta to the 10 gal, where I will also have my cories. So my new question is, should I just get a male dwarf gourami, or should I get a female as well? And are the females hard to find?

 

[Bubble_B0y]

1 gourami per 10 gallons (regardless of male/female)

therefore for a male female pair - you need 20 gallons.

 

[7Enigma]

That's just for the QT period. His plan is to move them to the 30gallon once they are deemed healthy. I would just go for the single male.