Gouramis for my future 100gl

[Copachick]

Soo.. we are tossing around the idea of getting some gouramis for our 100gl tank. I have heard alot about the males being aggressive... or is that only in certain types? Do any one kind go better with another? How many males and females should we get to cut down on aggression and the territorial behavior?

 

[jcolon]

to AA

Gouramis are weird .. I had two a Gold ... which apparently are just plain aggressive .. and a Blue. The Blue started to get more of a bully as it got larger .. they certainly can stand up for themselves in a tank of Barbs.

And yeah a couple of males will have the larger more dominant bully the smaller. In my case I had two females (could tell by the shape of the dorsal fin) and the Gold bullied the Blue.

I'd say .. IMO ...Blue, Opaline and Dwarf Gouramis may be the way to go.
I've lost my interest in them so I'm not much more help ..sorry.

 

[Copachick]

Thats ok.
I was thinking about dwarf gouramis, but then I heard, or read that they are delicate and they die easy? or they are shy and just alot of times dont do well. So I dunno?

 

[Copachick]

Its funny that in gouramis, the female gets aggressive also.

 

[Shark_Bait]

I have 2 male dwarf gouramis and 2 male neon blue dwarf gouramis. i would not recomend putting that many males in a tank. they are in a 55 gal and are decently peaceful. they are territorial but not aggressive. they might chase each other out of their corner of the tank but never attack. I love them because they are active and so outgoing. they swim through my fingers if i put my hand in the tank. i recomend them highly!!!

 

[Shark_Bait]

also, my tank got a terrible case of ick and my 4 gouramis were the only survivors out of 15. they were the toughest in the tank

 

[Copachick]

Would it be ok to get all females? Or do people reccomend getting a male in with the bunch?

 

[Shark_Bait]

I would recommend throwing in a male with the females.

 

[jcolon]

Thats ok.
I was thinking about dwarf gouramis, but then I heard, or read that they are delicate and they die easy? or they are shy and just alot of times dont do well. So I dunno?

That's what I found with my two. I got rid of the Gold first ... took it back to Petsmart ... it just would not leave the Blue alone. I just rehomed the blue to a trusted LFS two months later. It was the tank bully though it was not overt. But ... I could tell the Barbs were behaving differently as weeks passed.. and most time they would move away from her. I thought Barbs are supposed to be notorious, obnoxious fin nippers!

Since then ... my Barbs are shoaling more and more. The real confirmation came when I read that a dominant fish will try to break up fights among other fish .. and when two male TigerBarbs would fight for dominance of the shoal ... the Blue would usually break it up