Dwarf Goumari in a 33Gal?

[Sly_Fra]

Hi all,

I made a bit of room in my well planted 33Gal, and what I have now is a school of 10 Neon Tetra and 2 female Betta Splendens (and a bunch of yamato shrimps). And I LOOOOOVE Dwarf gouramis. But I remember my childhood where it seemed complicated to keep those. Of course my water conditions maintenantce and checkup as well as my general fish keeping knowledge was non-existant back then...

I want to try them again. Can I have 2 couples in there or one male will hunt down the other one?

Alternatively could I have 1 couple of Dwarf and 1 couple of Honey or this will lead to Honey Gooey?

On a different note i read a few places that these gouramis were over-fed with antibiotic etc from their Asian based breeding farms. Any thoughts on this? Are they bound to die because of general weak immune system?


And if that is the case, where can I get some non-asian bred ones..?

Thx

 

[SeverumGuy]

If you were to go with dwarf gouramis it would be best to do a 2:1 ratio of one male and two females. I'm not sure how your bettas will do with these. Then again you may not have any problems. I saw where some guy wrote in another post where it's hard to keep a dwarf gourami alive past 6 months. I don't know anything about that, but it would be best to find someone who has owned them for a while to find out. As for the honey gourami. I don't see a problem seeing as they are peaceful fish. Worth a shot.

 

[lordofworms]

I have had both my gouramis for well over a year now. and they are quite healthy even skating through 2 outbreaks of ich.

I have a powder blue and a flame-red. both males in a 90 gallon

I would have to agree with the 2:1 ration of boys to girls. although I havent been able to find ANY females in ANY petstore location ANYWHERE near me..so you might have to order them.

that being said my two gouramis DO seem to argue alot. but I have a medium/heavily planted tank with alot of hiding spots so they can get out of each others sight.
but even then when they do confront one another its all just smoke and mirrors for them. they puff up, they wag at each other and then both bolt the opposite ways...lol. its actually quite interesting to watch.

I recently picked up a 45 gallon corner hex tank so I may finally seperate them. even though there hasnt been any damage done to either of them during all this time i still worry its only a matter of time.

 

[Sly_Fra]

Thanks LordOfWorms.

Ladies are easy to find around here, not a problem. And since these fish are basically the same (just color variations), the female can be flame-red or natural, doesn't change much I think.

So 2 males + 2 females would be better than 2 males only? Or maybe 2 males 3 ladies...?

 

[Twoapennything]

I love dwarf gouramis so I'm reading this thread with interest. I've had three pairs of powder blues (absolutely beautiful fish) and one set of the dwarf gouramis with the reddish stripes, and none of the pairs lasted longer than two months. Now I do have a set of regular moonlight gouramis, and they seem to be doing well. One of them is quite aggressive, but mostly toward its friend. The aggressive one is bigger than the other, so I have been wondering if the bigger one is a male and the other a female. I have a 40 gallon tank and they seem to do fine. Actually, right now, the gouramis are in the 10 gallon quarantine tank while I do a fishless cycle on the 40 gallon. They're doing fine so far. It seems that 33 gallons is sufficient for dwarf gouramis.

 

[TrixyEnigma]

I have 3 honey gouramis in my tank right now. It's a 30g high tank and it also contains 6 platys, 7 neon tetras, and a cory cat. I've had one male for about a year, and the others (1 m, 1f) for about 8 months. I haven't had any issues so far. I didn't want the 2m:1f ratio, but they guy at the lfs didn't believe me when I told him he was selling me a m/f pair. He insisted they were both female, but I knew better. Anyway, I haven't had any fights or nipping between the two males and neither of them really chase the female too much. The older male and the female have even attempted to mate, but I have too much agitation at the surface for his bubble nest to stay in place. Eventually I will balance out the m/f ratio.

 

[Twoapennything]

the guy at the lfs didn't believe me when I told him he was selling me a m/f pair. He insisted they were both female, but I knew better.

Is there an easy way to tell the sex of gouramis? If so, can you explain? I'm just curious. I don't have any dwarf gouramis right now, but I have two regular sized moonlight gouramis. The only difference I can see is one of the gouramis seems to have a shorter bottom fin.

 

[adeebm]

Is there an easy way to tell the sex of gouramis?

I don't know about other gouramis, but with dwarfs, I think the females are all silver, while the males show the typical colors. I've also heard that gouramis have weak immune systems due to over/inbreeding. Probably the reason that most DG die is due to dwarf gourami iridovirus which a lot of the asian bred ones carry. They are amazing fish though, and I love how they wiggle their feelers when they're excited.

--Adeeb

 

[Sly_Fra]

Just wondering if Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) (the real leaves, not the extract) can help against the iridovirus. The IAL are said to prevent against bacterias, virus, etc.

Any thoughts on this anybody?

 

[Sly_Fra]

Nice article by the way: http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/education/ras/publications/Update/Iridovirus%20in%20gouramis.pdf

 

[adeebm]

Just wondering if Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) (the real leaves, not the extract) can help against the iridovirus. The IAL are said to prevent against bacterias, virus, etc.

I don't think iridovirus is curable. I think all you can do is quarantine new DGs and hope they don't have it.

--Adeeb

 

[TrixyEnigma]

Is there an easy way to tell the sex of gouramis? If so, can you explain? I'm just curious. I don't have any dwarf gouramis right now, but I have two regular sized moonlight gouramis. The only difference I can see is one of the gouramis seems to have a shorter bottom fin.

In the honey gouramis that I have, the female is slightly larger and has a rounder belly. Her coloring also isn't as strong as the males. The two males in the tank have a very striking almost orange clolor to them, and they have both developed a black stripe that runs from their mouth along the belly and anal fin. The other thing that some sites say you can look for is in the dorsal fin. The female should have more of a round dorsal fin, where the male's dorsal fin would be more of a point. I hope this is helpful.

 

[Sly_Fra]

I don't think iridovirus is curable. I think all you can do is quarantine new DGs and hope they don't have it.

--Adeeb

Not curable I know, but maybe preventable, or reducing the risk of it develloping. I wouldn't be surprise IAL would redice the level of occurance of the disease...