Hey, thinking of adding 1 dwarf gourami to my community set up in the near future and was wondering if they'll be ok on there own? I know they do better in groups but does this rule out a single one in the tank all together?
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You better not keep gouramis in pairs, as the male will hassle the female too much. It is recommended to have a trio. 80 litres should be fine for a trio, provided that you have enough hiding places in the form of plants, caves etc.
Gouramis are not schooling fish, don't know where you get that from. Natural behaviour for a gourami is for a male to establish a territory, into which he may let females enter but not another male. From this it follows that a single male will not be lonely. It is pointless to compare territorial animals like gouramis to flock livers like monkeys and humans (or tetras, for that matter), that's just bad science. Fish are as diverse in behaviour as mammals.
It is true that if you insist on keeping several male gouramis then you need to keep them in such a large group as to make it impossible for them to establish a territory. But why this preventing of natural behaviour should be considered kinder than letting them get on the way they'd normally do I really don't see.