A little fuss between my Dwarf Gouramis.

Those "tentacles" I believe are longer pelvic fins. Gouramis come from swampy areas, and these supplement their vision. They kinda act like little "feelers" in case the gourami is in water where vision is poor.

As to your tank- I'm pretty sure you'd be well overstocked in a 10 or 15. You may be able to get away with that in a 20- but I'm still kinda new. Someone will back me up, or correct me if I'm wrong.

Males do fight. When you first put them in the tank, they'll probably fight the most. They stake out territory, and will defend it. If there's a size difference in the gouramis, it's likely the bigger one will pick on the other and possibly even stress him out to the point of maybe getting a disease or exacerbating an existing condition. Once the territories are drawn, the fighting will subside, and they'll stay on their own turf, and just chase the other around if they step a little out of their part of the tank.

How can you get many gouramis to coexist? It's difficult in a small tank, but it depends on the situation. Some gouramis will chase all fish away- and can get pretty rough. Some will only chase other gouramis of the same species away, and may tolerate the minnows just fine.

In the mean time, make hiding places for your gouramis- create little refuges or caves if possible. Some aquarium-safe piping covered in gravel will do. Also, try and break up the line of sight between opposite ends of the tank. I have a rather large fake rock thing that splits my gourami tank in half, and that is a GREAT help. When they have a way to mark their territories out, they may be able to share the tank- BUT:

If one gourami is injured, keep him separate- even dwarf gouramis can get aggressive. Give him some time to heal. Even if it's minor- if he's being chased, that can stress an injury and cause a world of trouble.

Hope I could help. Gouramis are fun fun fish. Mischievious little guys, but entertaining.

Analog Saint said:

Gouramis are fun fun fish. Mischievious little guys, but entertaining.

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I have to agree. My two males (Dwarf Gouramis) are little vacuum cleaners, too. They eat everything. They chase each other a bit, but don't seem to nip at each other and in general seem to be half hearted about it. (and they hide together if I stick the net in the tank or bug em too much with my hand) They are young yet though, so we'll see.

I have mine with 6 neons, and I've never even seen them chase the neons. Even when the neons steal food from nearly out of their mouths. I also have 4 anaeus (sp?) corys and a weather loach. I've got a few live plants, a large (fake) cave/rock structure and many plastic plants. (to be soon replaced with live ones) I plan on a few more fish, but probably only 2-3 oto's.

With that fish load in my tank, I don't really feel comfortable adding too much more, aside from some shrimp if I can find em locally. I think I could push it with a few more smaller fish, or 4 or 5 neons, but I don't have plans to.

I would say your fish load is a bit on the pushing it side. Removing a gourami would be the best thing for the tank. I have only had a few gouramis myself but I find they work best in 20 gallon setups. Even then they can get aggressive but it does leave more room for the picked on fish to get away and hide in.

Gouramis, IME get more aggressive as they age and need more territory. They won't get lonely and don't need females. In fact you would be hard pressed to find a female gourami for sale at a fish store these days. My single dwarf gourami lives in a 20 gallon tank with tetras and a flying fox and does quite well.

1 gallon is not even close to enough room to hold a gourami for any length of time. A 5 gallon bucket is very cheap and makes a good quarentine tank.

Well, I'd hate to hijack another person's thread (actually, I don't mind that much), but I have a related question of my own. Would two male dwarf gouramis be too much for a 29 gallon? It would certainly be nice to get another one, but I am guessing I would be pushing the limit in that tank as well.

Gouramis love plants, preferably live, because they are omnivores. Their diet should include some vegetable matter. I've long forgotten the names of most of my plants, but whatever plants work with your lighting is more important. They are one of the least picky fish I know. The two kinds of gouramis I keep absolutely love Spirulina Algae flakes- if you don't want them nibbling on your plants, a bottle of flakes will be about $4 and last you a while.

As for gouramis, here's some things to keep in mind:
1) they are solitary fish. they do like places where they can be alone.
2) they like a varied diet. veggies are important to their digestive health.
3) if they can always see each other, they will never leave each other alone, no matter how big the tank. little caves, tunnels, plastic rock formations, live plants, and such will help divide the tank up.
4) they establish a "pecking order" in the tank and undoubtedly the smallest one will get picked on, so that's why #1 is so important. So long as they have a place where they don't feel threatened, they will flourish.

If you keep those in mind while planning a 29 gallon tank, in my experience, you could probably keep three or four dwarf gouramis in there without problems. There's a site www.**************** that sells females, if people are interested in keeping females.

Those are good suggestions. A densly planted tank would be the best thing. My gourami never does enough damage to any of my plants for me to worry about him. I have on occasion throw in Nori, which is just sheets of dried seaweed for sushi that they seem to enjoy. I just rip it into small pieces and toss it is.

As for types of plants. I have crypts, java fern, riccia, some stem plants, all of which grow nicely and the gourami likes to hide in them a lot. If you get fake plants then get the ones with silky leaves as they won't hurt the finnage on the fish like plastic does.