Gouramis

[dwf73]

I am wondering if people can explain to me why there is such an interest in gouramis among fish hobbyists. I am not criticizing them at all, it is just that I never really got into that specific type of fish and I notice that a lot of people enjoy them, so I would like to hear about their good points. Thanks.

[jeffro426]

Certain types of gouramis i think are absolutly beautiful fish...their quite graceful in movements and very pleasing to watch. Their not picky eaters and are relativly easy to keep and can live with most community fish in peace. Alot of the LFS types are kinda boring in coloration, but every now and then youll find strange and or exotic morphs and they are quite stunning!

[mechanic]

I like them because they get to a decent size,are interesting to watch and they are colourful.
Alot of people think of them as peaceful as well but I've had compatability problems with gourami's & zebra danio's/ neon tetra's.
Later
Eric

[PumaWard]

I've always loved the dwarf species (I don't mean specifically dwarf gourami) with my favorites being chocolate gourami.

The smaller gourami, I think, have quite interesting behavior. I love to watch my honey go amongst the plants a look a things. They are also fairly cheap and quite pleasing to look at.

The larger gourami don't seem to have such behavior, though I cannot complain much about the pearl gourami. They are very peaceful.

[often dignified]

I don't care for standard ones, but I like the dwarf variety. They're active enough to keep the tank busy, but still graceful to be able to appreciate. The dwarves are eager and always seem like they're looking for something. Their colors are awesome too when they start to thrive.

[dethjam316]

hahahaha...i have 3 moonlights, 3 pearls, and 15 3spot gouramis (including 13 babies from my let-nature-take-its-course fry), for a grand total of 21. i love them...they're big enough to have a personality (never saw much of that in true schooling mentality fish), and i find them relaxing, especially in numbers in larger tanks. a few of the babies will be going into our communal tank at my workplace when its get set up later this month.

i plan on breeding the pearls next, but i have to get a male. males tend to be a bit pugnacious, hence all of my gouramis (not counting the babies) are female. i used to have one male (hence the babies), but he unfortunately died a week after the babies were born.

[Watcher74]

I have a large pearl gourami and am very happy with him. I wouldn't say that he picks on the other, smaller fish, but he does take advantage of his larger size and the intimidation his size has over the other fish.

[Ryoken]

I think part of it is that gouramis make perfect centerpiece fish for smaller/medium sized tanks. You have your tetras/barbs/danios ect swimming back and forth, your bottom dwellers... bottom dwelling and your Gouramis cruising slowly all over the tank, swimming at all levels and checking stuff out.

Gouramis come in all sorts of striking colors, are generally good community fish and are full of "personality." Most varieties are hardy as well. I'm not sure if it's that people like them so much (I do, personally they are my favorite group of fish) but as a group, Gouramis have very few drawbacks, or strange care requirments.

[dwf73]

So when people are talking about Gourami is it safe to assume they are generally going to be talking about the smaller ones? The only ones i have ever kept were licorice, and my fish suppliers usually pushed the kissing gouramis on me- do you think that the larger breeds are less attractive? I have certainly found them more agressive-almost intolerably so- and this is coming from an arowana/characidae guy.

[Ryoken]

Originally posted by dwf73
So when people are talking about Gourami is it safe to assume they are generally going to be talking about the smaller ones? The only ones i have ever kept were licorice, and my fish suppliers usually pushed the kissing gouramis on me- do you think that the larger breeds are less attractive? I have certainly found them more agressive-almost intolerably so- and this is coming from an arowana/characidae guy.


Well, when someone says "Gourami" I generally think of the 3-spot gourami or the dwarf. Any gourami larger than the 3-spot doesn't seem to be that popular so I'd say yes, they're talking about the smaller ones. I'm not too fond of the kissers myself, I like most of the other gouramis though.

Why is your supplier trying to push those kissers on ya anyways? Because of their size?

Some gouramis get aggressive, some dont, it all depends on the fish and it's conditions really. IME if the gourami is the biggest fish in the tank it will be less aggresive than if it feels threatened by other similar sized or larger fish. Some types will fight amongst themselves too.

[travelinman1969]

Hey dwf, Great topic. By the way my arowana is doin great. Comin back real good now. Antenae are even growin back. Anyway, I'm thinkin of gettin another tank, maybe a 29-40 and tryin to figure out what to put in it. I want some swordtails or mollies and some neons, but I also want some dwarf gouramis. I saw the one reply that they don't like neons. Bummer. :( I want color and the dwarfs have it, and so do the neons, but if I'm gonna get a fight, I'll have to decide on one or the other. Can anyone tell me how aggressive they get with baby fry? I had a tank about 7 years ago and made lots of hiding places for the fry. I had mollies, zebras, cories, a weather loach (not sure of the real name, but when a storm was comin he'd go nuts) and a pleco. About 1 or 2 fry would survive, sometimes none, per liter and would basically replace the older fish that died off. Will the gouramis tear the tank up tryin to get em? Guess I'm so used to my oscars tearin my tank up when I put rosies in and havin to put it back together, I just don't want the same problem in the smaller tank. I actually want to get this tank more for my girlfriend and want it to be low maintenance for her. She hates my 150 but I think she would like a tank this size. Especially the babies thing. :p

[Ryoken]

Travelinman,

Glad to hear your arowana is getting better, I was following your thread about it.

Keeping smaller gouramis with neons/other small tetras is hit and miss. I'd say that *most* of the time a dwarf gourami or a honey gourami will be okay with smaller tetras, but it's always possible to have troubles. If you really want dwarfs and neons, I'd just try it and if the gouramis cause trouble, take them back to the store?

I actually have a "Red Sunset" Dwarf Gourami still living in one of old killifish growout tanks (it cured a hydra problem and I left it in there) and it never bothered any fry that wouldn't fit in it's mouth (I learned this one the hard way, but I'm kinda dumb - luckily dwarf gouramis have small mouths for their size lol) and it certainly never hunted the fry like an oscar/predator would do. I only caught it eating fry that one time and they were very tiny E. Annulatus babies... too small to be out of the first stage of growout actually, but that's another story...

If there's cover for the fry and the Gourami is well-fed it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Any fry that survive the other fish and the parents should slip past the gourami too, unless you get one that really likes to root through plants. My dwarf gourami is very docile, but as always, YMMV.

[dwf73]

travelinman1969- That is very good news about the arowana, I am glad it is working out. Keep us posted on the recovery, yeah?

[Captain Hook]

I'm a big fan of gouramies.

Travellinman I am currently keeping a powder blue dwarf with cardinal tetras without a problem. I have found gouramies to be quite peaceful. Occasionally they chase each other around but that is the most aggression I have ever seen. Larger ones like gold, opaline, and 3spot are very hardy.

[sumoschro]

I have a gold gourami as the centerpiece to my 29 gallon and i love it. Gold gouramis have really striking color and as Ryoken said they are not picky eaters at all, pretty much any food I put in there gets eaten up right away.

[fishdude]

i have 2 neon bluye dwarf gouramis ina 29 but they have fights sometime acctually one is hurt :( but the reason i like em? is that they have a greta personality and they look like chiclids a little

also...for the one that is hurt i removed the carbon and put the alo vera heling stuff in. anything else i can do to keep out bacteria?

[edit] oh and i may be thinkin of a giant gourami but i still gota research

[Lauren]

my dwarf flame gourami rocks. He's colorful, graceful and peaceful. I love watching him swim around.

[1 fish 2 fish]

I like them because they are good looking, and have a unique shape. they are also intelligent, curious, and have personality.

[daveedka]

I like the blues, opaline and pearls, they are compatible with most other fish, and I like their personality. I have never liked kissing gourami's or giants. Dont see the appeal in an almost colorless fish. Dwarfs don't appeal to me much because I like fish with a little more size to them. Something to bear in mind is that every one likes different things, whatever you do don't let the LFS pick what goes in your tank. I wouldn't own a clown loach because I think they are unnatractive, the next person in the store might think they are the coolest fish ever bred. To Each their own.

[cblin]

I don't really care for the 3 spot gouramis either, blue, opaline, nor the gold. For the most part, they're a little bit too aggressive for my taste. The ones that I have currently and love are the pearls and the honey dwarf gouramis. I never had luck with powder blue ones. I bought this month's AQUARIUM FISH magainze which has articles on gouramis.