Gourami Advice?

[KrystaK]

I've wanted to introduce Gourami to my 30 Gal community tank for a while. I went to the local Petsmart to see what my options were.

I fell in love with the Opaline and Gold Gourami! The info on the tank's said they grew up to 6 inches and needed at least 30 gal of water.
I don't fully trust the info on these tanks so I thought I would ask here I read a posted link and it said that both fish do indeed need at least 30 gal.
Would it be acceptable to have a 5-6 in Gourami in my 30 gal tank? Which is 36 inches long.. I feel like it would be a bit cruel, as that doesn't seem like to much room
I would probably just get a single male Gourami of either of the before mentioned types...

I was also interested in the Dwarf Gourami, but I had read that they are very inbred and prone to diseases, which has sort of put me off. I don't want a fish that would develop some sort of terminal fish cancer and die How common is it for Dwarfs to develop a disease compared to any other type of gourami?

There were other Gourami available, such as the Honey sunset and Blue gourami, but they didn't catch my attention nearly as much as the Gold, Opaline and Dwarfs did.
I like the patterns that the Opaline, Gold and Dwarf come in... Are there any other Gourami that are on the shy side of four inches that I could look into ordering or keeping an eye out for?

 

[Bugdozer]

Maybe the banded and thick lipped gourami are what might suit you?

 

[Ruskull]

In my signature you can see that I have a large, 4 inch long female in a 36 gallon bowfront tank. She seems very happy to me, hanging out with a pair of Pearl Gouramis. I'd say a single FEMALE Opaline in a 30 gallon should be okay. A better, less aggressive option would be a Pearl Gourami or even a pair of them. I had a single Gold Gourami male, which is the same as the Opaline or Blue just a different color, and he was a beast. He chased after every other fish in the tank, even if they were bigger than him. In my humble opinion you need at least a 40 Breeder and better a 55-75 gallon tank for a male Opaline Gourami. Trust me, or I'd have a male myself, they are beautiful creatures but the females can be great too.

Let me know if you need help figuring out whether they're male or female.

 

[KrystaK]

I looked into both the Pearl and Banded Gourami, both look lovely to me (Google images told me so) I prefer patterned to solid color fish...

As for sexing Gourami, don't the males havea pointy dorsal fin and the females have a rounded one supposedly?
I'll look around for pearl Gourami as I swear I've seen them before, but I can't remember where. But I've never seen a Banded gourami.

Would a male-female pair be best? I think it'll be tough to find a female unless petsmart makes a mistake in sexing their fish, but anyways, thanks

 

[Ruskull]

Pearls are much more docile than the Opalines, Golds, etc. The males are frisky but usually far less than Opalines. You could start with a pair of Pearls and see how they get along. If the male is too frisky, adding another female spreads out his attention.

In my case having the big female Opaline tends to keep the male Pearl in check. Your tank is slightly smaller than mine but yours actually has a larger footprint since it's not as tall. I think you'd be fine with a pair of Pearls, especially if the female Pearl is a bit larger than the male.

Another point, you can keep Pearl G's with Honey or Dwarf G's but I wouldn't recommend either of these with Opalines.

You are correct in how to sex the Gouramis