Gourami Compatibility

[wcohen]

Hello Everyone,

My return to the hobby (one year ago) has been a success. My 15 gallon tank has done very well. Now, I am contemplating a large tank - about 60 gallons seems a reasonble size/cost compromise. The larger tanks seem to start really going up in price from here. Here are a couple questions:

Are Pearl Gouramis compatible with the slightly larger Blue and Gold Gouramis? I'm thinking of one each Blue, Gold and Pearl male, with two females for each.

Are Dwarf Gouramis compatible with these larger gourmis, or would they be harrassed? I'm thinking of moving him over from the 15 gallon tank and getting him some female companionship.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

Wayne

 

[sylvia]

Blue and gold gouramies are the same species - trichogaster trichopterus. they're only difference is color. As such, if you are going to keep these, you need to aim for only one male and at least 2 females - color is irrelevant. Two males in teh same tank are perfectly capeable of killing each other unless they are in a considerably large group.

I would avoid keeping three-spots and pearls together personaly and dwarf gouramies shouldn't be kept with these larger and mroe aggressive gouramies as they are easily stressed and prone to disease.

My suggestion would be to skip the three-spots altogether and stick to pearls. They are social so would do well in a group of, say, 6 with one or two males and the rest females. Three-spots spawn easily and, when they do, the male is aggressive enough to kill even non-gourami tankmates. Pearls are far mroe peaceful even if they do decide to spawn.

Another option - perhaps a replacement for the dwarf idea - would be the banded gourami (Colisa fasciata). These get to 4" and are peaceful. They do well in trios or in larger groups. males are a little more colorful than females and, though they look a bit like dwarfs, these are far hardier. a similar species is the thick-lipped gourami (Colisa labiosa) which gets to 3.5" and can be kept under the same conditions as the banded. Both these species can also co-exist with each other or with pearls.

What is in your 15 gallon BTW? You may be able to fit a couple of female dwarfs in there. Also, if you go for pearls, a trio of dwarfs would be fine provided the pearls were in a relatively big group (to distract each other).

 

[wcohen]

Hi Sylvia,

Thanks for the information.

So the three-spot males might go after each other even if they have two females each - that's good to know. I was thinking thinking that the group of 6 - 9 (2:1 females to males) would even out the aggression of the males. Now I know better. The pearls are very beautiful - I would not object to just keeping a group of them, and I'll look into the Banded Gouramis.

The male Dwarf is currently in the 15 gallon tank (planted and floating plants) with 10 Praecox (Neon Dwarf) Rainbows, a quartet of Siamese Algae Eaters and a female "Sunset" Honey Gourami. The two Gourami's seem to have a nice, platonic relationship (slightly different species, of course - they haven't tried to spawn, and I think they would have sterile offspring if they did) and both are hearty eaters - no problem competing with the Rainbows. I'm a little overstocked, but water parameters are fine (no trace of ammonia or nitrite; about 30ppm nitrate) due to proper maintenance and frequent small water changes. My thinking was to move the Rainbows and the male Dwarf to the new tank and pick up a male and female "Sunset" Honey Gourami to go in the 15 gallon tank with the other female. Maybe I should leave them be and just substitute some Neon Tetras for the Rainbows. (Might put the SAEs in the big tank too).

Visit to the LFS today confirmed new tank will fit where I want it. I've learned my lessons and will develop a plan before stocking the new tank and will stick to it. New tank should be set up in mid - late January and will slowly begin to be stocked a few weeks after that.

Thanks again Sylvia. I've read your posts quite often. You are truly the "Guru of Gouramis."

Wayne

Blue and gold gouramies are the same species - trichogaster trichopterus. they're only difference is color. As such, if you are going to keep these, you need to aim for only one male and at least 2 females - color is irrelevant. Two males in teh same tank are perfectly capeable of killing each other unless they are in a considerably large group.

I would avoid keeping three-spots and pearls together personaly and dwarf gouramies shouldn't be kept with these larger and mroe aggressive gouramies as they are easily stressed and prone to disease.

My suggestion would be to skip the three-spots altogether and stick to pearls. They are social so would do well in a group of, say, 6 with one or two males and the rest females. Three-spots spawn easily and, when they do, the male is aggressive enough to kill even non-gourami tankmates. Pearls are far mroe peaceful even if they do decide to spawn.

Another option - perhaps a replacement for the dwarf idea - would be the banded gourami (Colisa fasciata). These get to 4" and are peaceful. They do well in trios or in larger groups. males are a little more colorful than females and, though they look a bit like dwarfs, these are far hardier. a similar species is the thick-lipped gourami (Colisa labiosa) which gets to 3.5" and can be kept under the same conditions as the banded. Both these species can also co-exist with each other or with pearls.

What is in your 15 gallon BTW? You may be able to fit a couple of female dwarfs in there. Also, if you go for pearls, a trio of dwarfs would be fine provided the pearls were in a relatively big group (to distract each other).

 

[sylvia]

Thankyou very much!

I think your plan sounds good and I certainly would move the SAEs to the larger tank (as well as the rainbows) when you have that opportunity. They are active fish IME and enjoy a large tank.

BTW, though I wouldn't condone this, honey and dwarf gouramies are capeable of hybridising and producing fertile offspring - but inter-species spawning is unusual.

With the dwarf and honey situation, I'd suggest you wait and see how your stocking turns out with the larger tank and see what's left in the 15 once you've done all the re-aranging After this, it may be ok to add another male/female honey provided the tank's only lightly stocked (a small school of neons would still work if that's what you had in mind) and with a little planting to provide hiding places.

 

[trisha76]

I have gourami's in my tank and don't have any probs they live with other smaller fish too I only have one who is a bit of a bully if another fish tries to go into his log but other than that they are fine I have the following gourami in my tank 1 gold 2 blue 1 pearl 1 kissing and 2 dwarf they live with my tetras angels, platys gupies,bristle nose and 2 golden barbs and I've had no probs they have all lived together for awhile now and thats the only thing I've had probs with other then they killed my plants by chomping at them plants ended up falling apart from the stems.
But sometimes they can get along I've had gouramis before and had a mixed lot and never had any probs but I also had my baby oscar living with them for awhile before buying him his own tank when he got to a bit bigger then my gourami as I didn't want him eating them.

 

[sylvia]

Hi trisha, welcome to the forums. Just how long have you had this tank and how bi is it? I'm afraid that, to me, it sounds like you are very likely to be over-crowding your tank - especialy when it comes to the gouramies. Are you aware that kissing gouramies can grow to 12" (and it is kissers that are typicaly responsible for destroying planted tanks).

 

[trisha76]

Hello I am aware that the kisser will eat my plants though I have had all these fish before I have never had any probs with them living together in the past I have had this set up for 4 months now my tank is 6' long by 2' high and I think 2' wide my first set up I had these fish in years ago was only small 2' tank but I was new to tropicals as used to keep black mores back then but went tropical I had about 4 gourami and gupies and a couple of others so my tank would have been a bit crowded back then but Im talking years ago like about 7yrs ago I sold that tank 3yrs ago now with a blue acara I had which was my last tropical fish I owned I did warn the guy who brought the tank that he might want to put that fish in a bigger tank as he will grow more and use the 2' for smaller fish like tetras and gupies or things like that.