Gourami Compatibility

[moist]

Are all the different kinds of gouramis compatible? or should they mostly be placed with ones of the same kind? like i hav 2 golden gouramis, and would like to get 2 mor of a different kind (maybe blue i duno yet) is this a problem?

 

[Dwarfs]

There are many species of gourami, from the miniscule and sparkling gourami to the monstrous giant gourami. All of them vary in aggression and attitude.

Blue gouramis and all of their color morphs have to be the most aggressive gourami that I've ever owned. IMO, if the 2 golds that you have now are getting along, just stay with those to so you don't risk the possible chance of fighting breaking out due to new gouramis

 

[sylvia]

Just to make something clear - gold, blue, opaline, cosby, platinum etc are all the same species. They are the three-spot gourami (trichogaster trichopterus), and like dwarfs said, they are very aggressive and not easy to mix with related species or their own kind. I suspect your are either immature or both female.

 

[kgrehm]

And It all depends on the size of your tank. And if you wanted to mix a certain amount of gouramis you have to at least make sure that they are in pairs of 3-4. In this way they wont usually pick on the other kind. At least that is how it has been in my experience. But again its all about the size that they can live in.

 

[Ethos]

I had 5 gourmis in ONE 10G TANK once, and they didn't destory each other. But the pearl Gourmi was pretty mean. As soon as I got the Blue out of the tank he seemed fine. That when I learned 1 fish can make ALL the differance.

 

[breeze1770]

I currently have mixed gouramis in my 55g.
2 moonlight(m+f)
2 golden(m+f)
1 platinum(f) &
1 blue(f)
2 Pearl(not certain of gender, but they look identical)

The moonlights are adults, but the rest are young.
They all get along fine, currently.
Prior to these young ones, I had these same moonlights in the same tank with 4 other opalines with which they grew up and lived for over two years. The male moonlight is a skunk. He's bossy but has never hurt anyone. The others which I expected to be more aggressive, were not.
I encouraged my sister to get oplaines for her tank. She got one bossy female... She pushes the rest of the tank around includeing the 8 inch pleco that used to live in my 55. That poor guy can't get a break(see below). I've recommended that she take the overly agressive fish back to the store. She refused, so we'll see how that is gonna play out.

Now my dwarfs were a different story.
I had a Flame Dwarf male that would chew on my pleco(same pleco my sister now has), a fish 8 inches larger. He killed three of my 5 dwarfs.
I blamed the moonlight at first who was still young but by far the biggest, until I saw the dwarf giving violent chase. He went into his own 10 gallon tank... I tried to get him tank mates but he never liked any of them. he lived about 8 months longer. I had a couple dwarfs left over from the slaughter that lived happily in the 55 for almost 2 years with the opalines and the moonlights. I don't keep dwarfs any longer, so that is the extent of my experience.


In the end, it will depend on the fish.

How big is your tank? The bigger the tank the more likely your chance of success.