Gourami Behaviour & Groups?

[DizzyMoo]

Hi all, I'm still a beginner with trops but before i met the now ex i'd just bought a 4ft tank & liked gouramis , After cycling i went to the lfs & they told me they needed to be in pairs/trios, of 1 male 1 female or 1 male/2 female. I liked different coloured gouramis & was told the sex thing remained the same so that i could have a trio of gold , a trio of blue & dwarfs etc, each with 1 male per trio. Anyway they obviously fought & chased eachother, nipping fins & generally just being buggers, After contacting the same lfs she couldn't understand why but i was adamant i wasn't happy & took them all back & ended up with a community tank.
So anyway... sold the tanks i had due to ex moaning... ex now out the way & here i am 3 tanks later 2 of which awaiting fish

I still like gouramis so can anyone give me the lowdown on them & keeping diff coloured ones together? & what other fish would they be ok with? ( if any )
Are they ok in a 3ft tank, Again if so how many can i put in it. Tank is 3ft long,18" deep & 12" wide, sand substrate.

I have a 4ft tank too but not sure what to put in either tank so looking at my options before i buy .

Thanks x

 

[RockyRaccoon]

Hi all, I'm still a beginner with trops but before i met the now ex i'd just bought a 4ft tank & liked gouramis , After cycling i went to the lfs & they told me they needed to be in pairs/trios, of 1 male 1 female or 1 male/2 female. I liked different coloured gouramis & was told the sex thing remained the same so that i could have a trio of gold , a trio of blue & dwarfs etc, each with 1 male per trio. Anyway they obviously fought & chased eachother, nipping fins & generally just being buggers, After contacting the same lfs she couldn't understand why but i was adamant i wasn't happy & took them all back & ended up with a community tank.
So anyway... sold the tanks i had due to ex moaning... ex now out the way & here i am 3 tanks later 2 of which awaiting fish

I still like gouramis so can anyone give me the lowdown on them & keeping diff coloured ones together? & what other fish would they be ok with? ( if any )
Are they ok in a 3ft tank, Again if so how many can i put in it. Tank is 3ft long,18" deep & 12" wide, sand substrate.

I have a 4ft tank too but not sure what to put in either tank so looking at my options before i buy .

Thanks x

i'll never understand why some people claim that gouramis do better in pairs. i only have experience with dwarf gouramis but i have found that they do much better singly. my understanding is that all gouramis are territorial and will be aggressive towards their own species (or similar species like bettas and paradise fish).

dwarf gouramis can be kept with most docile schooling fish like tetras, corys, and guppys... but it is possible that you'll end up with an aggressive dwarf gourami that bullys the smaller fish. some small schooling fish can be crazy fin nippers though so do some research before choosin. hope this helps.