shoaling dwarf gouramis

[dwarfgourami]

Was just leafing idly through one of my aquarium books and found the following on dg's: "Dwarf gouramis are both shoaling and territorial. If there are lots of them in the tank, they will swim together..."

Now I have no intention of trying this one out, as it seems to me you'd need a pretty enormous tank, but I am intrigued. Can this be done? Has anyone tried it? What sort of a tank would you need to keep them from ripping each other apart ? (I am assuming that we are talking more than one male here).

 

[sylvia]

Well that's half true. You'll see if you keep several females together - even in a relatively small tank - that they are peaceful, non-territorial and seem to enjoy each other's company. I'd never keep a female dwarf alone. You'd also see them swimming closely together - by definition, they are schooling. Also, sometimes males will swim together if there are no females present or if they aren't in the mood to breed. However, as soon as they go into 'breeding mode' they'll turn on each other. Luckily, dwarf males rarely cause actual damage to each other - the real problem with their aggression is the stress it causes which can then, indirectly, lead to death. Lots of males together works out similar to keeping 7 RTBS - two RTBSs together would kill each other but a big group may be ok.
I have kept a group of 8 male dwarfs in a 55 gallon in the past. They didn't actualy 'school' but did sometimes clump together and certain fish seemed to form bonds with specific others and they'd swim together a lot of the time. They did occasionaly get into scraps or display but, because there were so many, the aggression was split between several individuals and thus became less significant - somwhat like keeping 7 tiger barbs together as opposed to 2 - or over-stocking with mbuna cichlids - same principle. When I was down to 3 male dwarfs - they didn't interact much because they had plenty of space to themselves - (2 were rehomed, one died of old age, the other two succumbed to internal bacterial infections), I put in 7 females in the hope that they'd still get along despite being just a little overcrowded. The 3 males, at this point, started being a bit more hostile towards each other because there were fewer of them and because the females were present - but they were, in total, a group of 10 dwarfs. This is why I said the idea that they are a schooling species is only half true. The females got along fine and, as there were enough to limmit aggression towards a single individual, they did fine with the males as well. I only had serious problems when the males decided to build and guard bubblenests and spawn because I'd then end up with 3 rather aggressive males preventing anything from reaching the top layers (including the females who, of course, had to have access to the surface to breathe). This was the point when I turned up the filter current .

 

[dwarfgourami]

Thanks Sylvia, for a very informative reply. It's always great to get these insights into other people's tanks, tells a lot more than the books. I suppose I jumped to the conclusion that the author meant a mixed-sex shoal, with several males, but she didn't actually say so, so perhaps she didn't.

Well that's half true. You'll see if you keep several females together - even in a relatively small tank - that they are peaceful, non-territorial and seem to enjoy each other's company. I'd never keep a female dwarf alone. You'd also see them swimming closely together - by definition, they are schooling. Also, sometimes males will swim together if there are no females present or if they aren't in the mood to breed. However, as soon as they go into 'breeding mode' they'll turn on each other. Luckily, dwarf males rarely cause actual damage to each other - the real problem with their aggression is the stress it causes which can then, indirectly, lead to death. Lots of males together works out similar to keeping 7 RTBS - two RTBSs together would kill each other but a big group may be ok.
I have kept a group of 8 male dwarfs in a 55 gallon in the past. They didn't actualy 'school' but did sometimes clump together and certain fish seemed to form bonds with specific others and they'd swim together a lot of the time. They did occasionaly get into scraps or display but, because there were so many, the aggression was split between several individuals and thus became less significant - somwhat like keeping 7 tiger barbs together as opposed to 2 - or over-stocking with mbuna cichlids - same principle. When I was down to 3 male dwarfs - they didn't interact much because they had plenty of space to themselves - (2 were rehomed, one died of old age, the other two succumbed to internal bacterial infections), I put in 7 females in the hope that they'd still get along despite being just a little overcrowded. The 3 males, at this point, started being a bit more hostile towards each other because there were fewer of them and because the females were present - but they were, in total, a group of 10 dwarfs. This is why I said the idea that they are a schooling species is only half true. The females got along fine and, as there were enough to limmit aggression towards a single individual, they did fine with the males as well. I only had serious problems when the males decided to build and guard bubblenests and spawn because I'd then end up with 3 rather aggressive males preventing anything from reaching the top layers (including the females who, of course, had to have access to the surface to breathe). This was the point when I turned up the filter current .

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