Gouramis have their little complications to think about. Personally I'd stay away from the Golds just because they are really just a color variant of the Trichogaster trichopterus, the other colors of which are the Blue Gourami (used to be called "three-spot" years ago) and the greenish one called the "Opaline," which was a new color variant as I remember it back in the 60's. All of these trichopterus can be mean fish and they can get quite big. As such, they are really better suited to being the -smaller- fish in a really huge aquarium that has a lot of fish bigger than them.
Gouramis in general will cause some trouble with generalizations as there's a bit of individuality there. You can happen upon ones that are more passive or more aggressive. But the generalizations to know anyway, I believe, are as follows: Males can and will get aggressive. One male per tank can help this and is often the way people go. The other thing that works but is more rare is if there is a pretty large group of the same type of gouramis. In that case they will distract each other and not bother other species like they do when there's just, say, a pair of them. I guess this makes "one male, two females" the most common grouping many times. They like plenty of plant cover and especially some floating plants in a corner or side of the aquarium.
Calling the Dwarfs (Colisa lalia) royal red or powder blue is a very recent thing I think. I think there are some legit "less silver, more blue" ones coming out of color breeding that are called powder blue, but I'm not sure how much the royal red is a bred variation or is just a label for the traditional Dwarf. These dwarf varieties are subject to the viral/bacterial thing you hear about but of course that's a hit or miss thing, either your fish has got it or not and you don't know. Dwarfs can be jumpers, so they need a lid. They are, though, pretty nice tankmates except for the occasional male aggression problems.
Honey Gouramis are also in Trichogaster, like the Blues, but they are a completely different personality and are supposed to be pretty ideal compared to these others we've been discussing. Even members here have described their colors as being much nicer at home once they are settled than you'll ever see in the LFS.
Back to the aggressive dept, I'd also like to mention that "kissing gouramis, who are not really even in the same family (Osphronemidae) as all these gouramis we've been discussing, are every bit as agressive as the trichopterus in my opinion. Chocolate Gouramis are back in the Osphronemidae family but are in a whole different subfamily than the dwarves or trichopterus, so they may have different behaviours - perhaps another member could tell us about Chocolates...
~~waterdrop~~
