My 1000th gourami question thread

[bosk1]

I've been doing a lot of research and asking a lot of questions here about my intended stocking scheme, and arrived at the conclusion that the best scheme for the blue and gold gouramis I plan to keep is to have 1 male, and three females (2 fish of each color). This, I have been told, is likely to keep the male aggression in check. But then I had a thought...

What if I got all males (either 1 of each color, or 2 of each color)? With NO females present, are the males still likely to show aggression toward each other? Some recent threads about multiple dwarf gourami males got me thinking along these lines. I don't know the answer, but I am sure there is enough experience on this board to offer some sage wisdom. Thanks in advance.

 

[Japola44]

i dont have much experence with my dwarf gouramies i just got them, but i have 2 males and they get a long fine. One is more agressive i suppose you could say and the other one is less so he kind of submits to the other one and wont fight back. So far i havent had any trouble with them. However i don't know if there are any differences in the dwarf and normal gourami's behavior.

I read in one of my threads just not to get multipul males and a female.

Good look, i would research it a bit and listen to what everyone else has to say.

 

[Zagz]

More than one person I know has chosen to go with an all male gourami tank. Some of the fish have shown aggression, it depends on the individual fish I think. Granted I must say most people advise me that they haven't got as much aggression as with females in the tank. LOL male behaviour is different when females are around, even in fish world.

 

[bosk1]

Zagz, what are the sexes of the gouramis in your 20 gal? (and how many pearls do you have?)

 

[Zagz]

With the 3 pearls I have 2 females one male, all of my gouramis are 2 females one male, I have no agression at all. I could be just lucky but it is overstocked so that may also have something to do with it. Extra water changes keeps the water quality good.

 

[Guest]

i had 2 female gouramis and 1 male gourami and he was constantly harrasing the 2 females... until the females had uclers. Previously i had 2 males that had always swim together with no problems. And this was in a 55 gallon.

 

[bosk1]

Well, I guess my initial stocking plan should work with the 3:1 ratio. So far, three females have posted in this thread, and I'm not feeling the least bit aggressive.

 

[RoK]

I've kept 2 adult male gold gouramis before in a tank by themselves and one would constantly harass the other. I had to move the one being picked on to the 20 gal to see if he would live ok with my dwarf gourami and they did with no disputes.
It definitely depends on the individual. In my experiences though, (especially with housing more than one male 3-spot gourami together) it is likely that there will be at least one that's a bully. HTH

 

[unknown_7]

I have kept in tanks in the past, 2 male blues, 1 male gold and 1 female gold. They were constantly fighting. I removed female gold, still fought, removed male gold, still fought and removed male blue and their was no one to fight with. However now I have 2 male pearl gouramis and 3 male dwarf gouramis. The aggression was initially between the subspecies so it was pearl vs. pearl and dwarf.vs.dwarf.dwarf, cause the pearl could easily over power the dwarfs but usually left them alone. The pearls all of a sudden became best friends and now use star at each other at opposite ends of the tank and sometimes follow each other and eat together. The dwarfs were more fiesty and once they had their own hiding place and established territory they were fine. Gouramis are all different there are some that are most passive or more aggressive than others, so I would experiment if possible. Well there are my two cents.