3 Male Blue Dwarf Gourami?

[kporteo]

Hi, im finally about to add my final fish to my 190lit tank, I currently have 11 Bentosi Tetra, 8 Penguin Tetra and 2 Bristlenose Plecs, I was originally advised (months ago) that 2 female and 1 male gourami would be best, but my lfs has said that if i dont want to breed them, why not just get 3 males as they are much better looking fish. Can I put 3 males together, or will they fight constantly? Also, how easy is it to breed gourami, as if its pretty easy, i may get females!
K

 

[Ben M]

that is ridiculous advise! If you get all males they will most probably fight all the time, and the smaller 2 will end up dead or very unhealthy. I'd stick to the 1m to 2fm ratio.

 

[kporteo]

that is ridiculous advise! If you get all males they will most probably fight all the time, and the smaller 2 will end up dead or very unhealthy. I'd stick to the 1m to 2fm ratio.

So, if im gonna get 2 f and 1 male, how easy is it to breed gourami?? I may as well try if i have the fishies to do it!! k

 

[Carlovel1]

As pest control said, the LFS gave you terrible advice. They would all end up dead as they will all fight and all of them will get stressed and stress kills fish! If I'm being honest, IMO males are better kept alone. If you decide to breed them, they will get very aggressive and they may even kill other fish in the tank. That's my advise- get a single Dwarf Gourami

 

[JoshuaA]

If you were set on males and wanted more than one I would say max 2 in the 190 litre, in my experience the dominance can be easily cured by setting aside two shaded areas either side of the tank and breaking up sight from either side. Fortunately due to my main tank layout both of those are easily doable, however I recently had a die back of the floating plant I use which caused a lot of the shaded area to suddenly disappear, I decided to remove the smaller dwarf male to another tank to prevent any issues arising from the dominance. He was planned to go back in but I quite liek where he is.

Though 3 males yeh that would just be awful, it would be like sending them to a slaughter house, you would get one dominant one, one middle and the lower. The lower one would get picked on by both and no doubt die due to stress etc etc you get the picture.

So either go for the 1m2f advice or even one male, two is doable but I would generally advise against it unless your tank was laid out to help and you had sufficient plants.