Dwarf Gourami

[jokerfla]

Can anyone tell me about their experiences with dwarf gouramis? I am considering getting one.

[J double R]

my experience with gouramis is nil. :p:

[jokerfla]

It appears we have a comedian in the bunch. :joke:

[kjr928]

I like them. They have attitude. They're pretty good for community tanks, but they will go after other fish (at least mine do). My gourami harrassed the crap out of my platies until I got another one - now they just harrass each other. Supposedly not good with bettas (because they have those long fins and they're slow), but I've read many conflicting reports about that. I'm going to try it and see how it goes.

[Xavi]

Males can be abit aggressive between themselves until dominence is established within the tank. Don't mix with other gouramis or similar fish(betta & paradise fish.)

[jokerfla]

I would only get one. How shy are they? I have heard floating plants are good for these fish, does that really matter?

[Que]

I have 2 male dwrf Gs and they do just fine in my comm. tank. They're in a tank with mollys, SAEs, cory, platy, sword, neons, shrimp and otos.

They were kinda shy the first month or 2 but are now right up in the middle of the feeding frenzy. They're brave enough to compete with the mollys for the shrimp pellets but usually just grab the loose pieces that float away.

They harass no other fish. They liked the floating plastic plant I had in there for the molly fry (there was a hollow they would hang out in) i have a hollow stump in there and a castle they like to hang out in too so places to hide are a good for them.

I love the way DG move through the water. It's cool to watch them feel things as they explore. I'm gonna get some more soon.

Q

[Squawkbert]

Mine is usually up front, begging for food. When there's no hope of being rewarded w/ food, he chases my Angel or larger tetras around. He's not the most pleasant fish in the tank, but he hasn't hurt anyone...

I'd only have one.

[melissa3]

I have two males (accident, thought one was a girl) and the dominant one chases the other to no end. It drives ME nuts! I'd suggest getting one male or 1 male/ 2 females. Besides that, they don't bother my other fish - 2 pygmy gouramis, group of neons and guppies.

They LOVE plants and like to hide under my floating mop of java moss. I've found they do a good job pruning my plants too. They only eat the dead leaves and leave the good ones alone =)

[jm1212]

i had a powder blue dwarf gourami as my first fish in my little 5 gallon. after i moved him over to my 20 gallon (b-day...wow that tank is going to be ayear old already time does fly ;)) and added a blue gourami (mistake, hey i was new), the blue gourami snapped after about a month and killed him, along with two platies and attempted to kill my black skirts... dwarf gouramis are awesome fish with lots of personality. i highly recommend them if you can find quality fish. latley though, it has really been hit or miss with quality. one week in the stores they will be great looking and extremely healthy, and another week they will all be sickly or dead within a day of the shippment. i have had better luck with localized and small chain stores with the quality rather than the nationial places.

[NeonJulie]

Love mine. Very intelligent and learning fish. Very entertaining. No drawbacks IMO if stocked them properly (except some have been very sensitive and easy deaths - probably poor breeding, so try and get one already full grown, and observe him for a while at the fish store. Try to observe him almost constantly scrounging for food if you can - it's a sign he's already comfortable, a good eater, and not too shy.)

Fairly decent poohers, plus sensitive to water conditions, so keep up on tests and water changes.

I second Q. Mine is a very controlled swimmer. Swims in small little notches when he's grazing. Very deliberate. Interesting sideways/upside down maneuvers when checking under plants, etc.

[mozart]

I've been moaning and groaning about mine since I added the female. You can read my posts. If I had it to do over again, I would only have 1. There seems to be a truce between them at the moment, but my females mouth appears to be traumatized (illness vs. injury or both). They get along great with my other fish, especially the platies. If you are willing to try 2, I would put them in at the same time, and be prepared to take one back! Good luck!

[yourchoice]

Floating plants are a must.I use hornwort.You can usually tell the more aggressive one in the lfs tanks.

[jokerfla]

Thanks for the info.

[Juninho10]

my experience with them is never keep them with apple snails they harrass them non stop!

but a very nice fish i had a blood red gourami and he was gorgeous, had no fear at all not at all shy. but can be destructive uprooting plants and picking on guppys and the snails.

[Denzil]

They are easy to keep. They just chill all the time. You can keep them with almost any fish. Beware of angels nipping the feelers!

[kjr928]

I've had loads of apple snails of all sizes in with my gouramis and I never had a problem with it. They're busy doing other things.

[enrique4jc]

I've had one for a couple of months. He was in quarantine the first month, and has been in my main tank for a few weeks. When I first added him, he seemed to be a bit aggressive with the other fish. He chased my larger tetras around for a while, but eventually calmed down. I did, however, lose my lone male guppy within a few days. I've had no problems with the guppy, so I am assuming the Dwarf Gourami is the culprit behind his death.

Anyway, now that he is settled in, he is a very peaceful fish who is a good addition to my community. He eats like a pig and is waiting for food any time I come near the tank. His color continues to come out, and it looks like he will end up a very beautiful fish. I am definitely pleased with him.

I say go for it!

[mozart]

My female is dead. I obviously didn't realize how stressed she was until it was too late. 24 hr after she was out of the tank (QT before death) he started attacking the platies, and they've been buddies. I took him to the lfs--they agreed that they are bullies. I think I'm gonna give pearl gourami a try. My female dwarf was very nice.

[jennysam]

My tank is mainly stoked with Gourami. I had 2 males dwarfs and loved them. they got on fine with each other and everything else in the tank as well. One died from hole in the head. When he died the other started to swim around with the neon tetra. He died an unexplained death. They are lovely fish though and full of character when you have two. One by himself was quite sad.

Its other breeds of Gourami that I have a problem with. Moonlights especially, If you want a peaceful tank don't get moonlights.

[Wat2Go]

Against all advice I added a Pearl so we now have a dwarf and a pearl in the tank. They get along very nicely. I figured they would sort of divide the tank (my half and yours) but they didn't, they always hang out together. They do not bother anyone and they don't get bothered.
L.

[gali]

My dwarf flame died last week,after being with us for 4 months. Did great the first 3 months, then started hiding, didn't seem sick other than that.
This is the 3rd time this happened during the last year. My son loves them so I get one once in a while always with the same results. It can be something in my tank, but all other fishies are doing just fine... It's always the gouramis. I'm not sure what they had, but read that gouramis are not as tough as they used to be. I will not get more, unless I know for sure they come from a reliable source.

[Luvbugz]

Before I knew better one guy at a LFS ( I don't go there anymore) swore up and down I neeed two females and one male for my 20gal high. They set up territories. One in the middle and one on each side. If they would stray into each others territory the fighting would commence. I ended up taking back two to a diff LFS and just keeping the blue female. She is def boss of my community tank. She will run off anyone that gets in her space. She even nips at my arm when I am moving stuff around in the tank.

[Mark Miller]

After looking on the 'net, I somehow convinced myself that it was Okay to have two male dwarf gouramis in my newly cycled 11 gal. tank. ( I know, I should have checked here first). That didn't work out, so I returned the red neon dwarf. The little blue neon is perfectly happy now sharing his home with a handful of tetras.
A very cool little fish, active yet peaceful, very tidy. His color is amazing, especially when he reflects the yellow gravel. I notice he sleeps up in the tops of the grass.

[dvd_wightman]

I don't have any experience with them but I have that two males will not do well together unless there are twice as many females. If you do house two males together without females, they will probably not fight to the death like Bettas but the dominate one will harass the other male.

[EahInMass]

Are these fish more, less, or about the same on the aggressive scale compared to Angels?

[chicken2]

Here in the uk the lfs's will only sell gourami in pairs. They also they advise us that gourami's are intolerant of bad water conditions and should only be added to a well established tank.

I had in the past 2 pairs of dwarf gourami at the same time and neither caused any trouble - they seemed to stay quite happy in their own area (unfortunatley they didn't survive a severe bout of white spot)

12 months down the line I have now got a pair of lace gourami, they have been in the main tank now for some 3/4 months and behave immaculately in the community tank. The only hassle is possibly at feeding time, the male goes into a right feeding frenzy and tries to hog all the food.

[EahInMass]

So what would be the best bet if I wanted to get more than one for my forty gallon community tank? I'm not looking to breed them, but was hoping for maybe three of them. Does that sound a little too far fetched? I had angels in the past and hated watching them fight all day long. I do expect some aggression from time to time but with my pairs spawning all the time I didn't find watching my tank peaceful at all! Is this the fish for me?

[Marinemom]

Gouramis can be very tricky. Lately, it seems that they are not as strong as they were before and more intolerant to iffy water conditions. In a fourty gallon tank, I would start with just one dwarf gourami and see how it goes. It will also depend on what other fish are in the tank with him.

Marinemom