Can someone give me the straight scoop on gouramis?

[bosk1]

I've been getting lots of different advice in different threads, but let me just start over and ask my questions here. I would like a mix of blue and gold gouramis, and my wife really likes pearl gouramis. So I thought I would do 4 blue/gold and 2 pearl. I was told the blues/golds can be a little aggressive toward others of their own kind, especially the males. I have been told the best way to get around this is to have 1 male to every 2-3 females. So my plan is 1 male blue, 1 female blue, 2 female gold. (and then a male/female pair of pearls) Are there any problems people see with this arrangement in a 55 gal.? I might even be inclined to just nix the golds altogether and go with a pair of gold rams, but the owner at my lfs said I really need a group of about 4 blue/gold gouramis to keep the males from being aggressive. She said with a pair (whether mixed gender or not), they are likely to fight. Is this true?

I have read species profiles on a few sites, but whatever experience others can bring to the table in this discussion would be appreciated. Please, feel free to suggest as many options/suggestions as come to mind. I am pretty flexible in my stocking plans, and just want to have a beautiful and peaceful tank (don't we all?).

I also plan to populate the bottom of the tank with either a small group (3-4) of clown or yo-yo loaches.

And sorry for the incessant posting on this subject. I'm just excited about my newly refound hobby, and the responses I have been getting are becoming scattered around different threads on other topics, so I thought I would just try to consolidate the discussion here so I can ask tons of follow up questions without hijacking others' threads.

 

[Gryph]

I have two pairs of dwarf gouramis. Yes, there is a large inclination to bicker in there. Had I to do it over again, I would likely get one male and a pair of females, to keep the quarreling down. As it is, I'm re-sealing my 20L to put them into, so I can divide off territories and reduce the aggression.

The arrangement you have planned should work, at least on paper. But, fish being individuals, your mileage may vary.

My own two bits.

 

[CompMage]

First, never fill bad posting a question on a forum like this.

As for Gouramis. Yes, rule of thumb is 1 M - 3 F. I've found with them that if you only have 1 male, your females are going to be constantly stressed. So I normally say get two males because they will go at each other trying to establish who is the big fish is and leave the females alone. But if you do this your 3 females will again be stressed because of the attention of 2 males is a lot even with them contesting with each other. So you might want to move up to 5 females.

ANY LFS worth shopping at will be able to help you get the genders you want.

I have currently 2 males and 5 females blues in a 55G tank. I'm sure someone will chim in saying how they are the nicest fish in the world bla bla bla. But for the most part they like to pic on each other.

I've never had Loaches, so I can't help you on that. Sorry

I have not owned pearl or gold Gouramis, but I would be surprised if they were that much different.

They make for a really nice site in a 55G tank. Good luck with things.

HTH

Comp.

 

[rich311k]

I have owned the pearls and have one lone female now. They are more gentle than the blues. A pair should get along, especially with all that room. The male may get involved in the squables with your blues however. I have never mixed them. They get along fine with my angels.

 

[Talon242]

As for the pearl gouramis they do tend to pick on one another. I notice that one is definitely the more dominate one (Btw I have 2 males). They never do any real harm to one another. Not sure how they would be with other gouramis though.

 

[Zagz]

All of my gouramis get along, I have 3 sunset, 3 blues, and 3 pearls, I have one male to 2 females of each. As far as loaches go, I have both yoyo's and clowns. The clowns will get very large in time, the yoyo's stay small.

 

[RoK]

Did you not see my last post on the "Sparring gouramis?" thread?
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?p=535010&highlight=#535010

The pearl's are usually a bit less territorial and possibly would be fine to just have a male and only 1 female.

 

[bosk1]

Saw it. Thanks. I started this thread before you posted that. And I wanted to try to somewhat consolidate all the gourami advice I was seeing since I think I had discussions going on in like 3-4 different threads. This has all been very helpful.

Now if I could just get my tank cycled so I can actually put some fish in it...

 

[RoK]

Have you decided on which you are getting and how many?

 

[bosk1]

Not completely, but I think I have a sense. Since the blues/golds are just color variations of the same species, I think I'm going to go for one male, three females, so a total group of four. And then I think I'll go with a male/female pair of pearls that are slightly bigger than the blues/golds (since they are more sensitive to water conditions, I don't want to introduce them first in a brand new tank). I plan to keep an eye on their behavior, and modify the group if I see any undue aggression. This is close to the numbers you suggested. I may add an extra female to either group as you suggested if it looks like I may need to. But since it is not a huge tank (55), and I want a small group of loaches, I do not want too big of a gourami population that would prevent me from adding anything else without unduly stressing my bioload (or just making my fish too cramped and unhappy). I am also trying to create lots of little territories around the tank with lots of (fake) plants and driftwood so that the males can easily stake out their own territory, and the other fish can have somewhere else to go without encroaching.