Should i get another Male Dwarf Gourami?---NO

I just got 8 serpae tetra's today they are so cute, i hope i don't lose any of them.You can see in my signature my current stocking. I am very happy with what i have now, but was wondering if i should get another Male Dwarf Gourami or two.

Anyway I have one M. Flame and 2 Females, i was wondering if i got another Male Dwarf Gourami if there will be any aggression between the two. I just really like him and i really want to get a neon or powder blue AND one of the Orange and blue ones. I think it would look cool, would 3M and 2F cause aggression? TIA

[LittlePuff]

Yep. It'll cause aggression.

Kim

ok, i wan't to know why, ive heard of people having several Male dwarf gouramis, can you please elaborate?

[LittlePuff]

They are territorial and don't appreciate other males on their turf.

Kim

any body else with Gourami experience have any comments or suggestions?

[dr_girlfriend]

My male flame is a jerk to the female I have, I'm sure he would rip apart any other male. IME they are very aggressive fish generally. You could always try and see what happens.

wow, ive had gouramis a few times and ive never seen them be aggressive, they are just kinda like slow moving grazers.. LOL

[dr_girlfriend]

my male is on speed or something, he jerks around that that tank looking for intruders, I guess. The female is laid back, but spends most of her time hiding behind my anubias plant from him.

do you have any other big aggressive fish? I guess you could say i have a semi agresive aquarium with the Rainbow shark, Angels, and gouramis. Maybe thats why mine is so calm .... also he's got them 2 Females

[Zezmo]

Two male DG (Colisa lalia) will usually fight alot, if there are females about. If your tank is very large they might find thier own space, but in my 55, when I had 2, they fought constantly. The larger male always won, and the smaller male was always driven into some corner. Once I added a 3rd male, the agression spread out and now, even though they "fight" a lot it's not always the same two. With this they seem to be reasonably happy. I also know you should have more females than males.

I have some lotus lillies in there, when the leafs break the surface the DG's use them to build bubble nests, this is when the aggression peaks. If they start getting too beat up, then I trim everything back from the surface and it "breaks" the aggression for a few days.

wow, i just had no idea Dwarf gouramis were so aggressive. I started out with 2 males and they used to swim around togetehr. Then one of them died ( i suspected internal parasites and treated, but he still died) he was a neon blue. Thats when i decided to buy the two females. Thanks for the info though, i will just keep my one male and 2 females.

[LittlePuff]

Adding more females shouldn't be a problem.

Kim

Originally Posted by LittlePuff

Adding more females shouldn't be a problem.

Kim

i don't want to add more females, they aren't very colorful, just more males, but i guess i won't.

[oxymoron]

I have two male dwarf gouramis in my 20g and they don't bother each other at all. The first few days they chased each other a little, but now they have established their territory and they get along fine. They just divided the tank in half and they both tend to stay on their own side. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I wouldn't think you'd have a problem in a 55g tank.

[fearlessfisch]

I have three males in my 55 gallon and they have also claimed their own territories. They will spar when I put veggies in the tank and when one wanders into the wrong area of the tank, but the aggression has never been significant. I imagine it would be a lot worse, though, if there were females present to fight over.

[jrp1588]

I know my old gouramis didn't get along too well. One of them was even killed.

[Zezmo]

Having females in there to fight over makes the difference for almost any species.

[caribou]

I have two male DG and while they kind of display and dance in a circle at times, they don't reaaly fight. Their colors are spectacular. I often see powder blue DG ( at higher prices) and wonder/think that these are just female DG ?

[talloulou]

I have two male dwarf sunset gouramis and they seem fine together. But there are no females around. Once in awhile one will get to chasing the other one but then my severum steps in and breaks it up..

no... powdre blue are still pretty colorful. the females are almost a grey color and ifyou look really close you can see pale yellow stripes. But mostly, they just look gray