Pearl Gourami

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Slappy*McFish

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Gouramis are very aggressive to one another..especially the males. Since the Pearl is probably the most peaceful of the gouramis, I wouldn't recommend keeping it with the others in a tank that size, as it may very well get bullied to death.
 

Captain Hook

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I think they are male but not sure. They chase each other around sometimes but that's about it. I would call gouramies peaceful fish in general, they never actually hurt each other.

Also the pearl will be a bit bigger than the ones I have now. The tank has a ton of hiding places and many fake plants.
 

Dahlia

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When I was newer to the hobby a LFS employee told me that mixing gold/blue/opaline/pearl gouramis would work just fine in a 90 gallon tank. They said that gouramis were very peaceful community fish. They also recommended some other fish to go with them. The result was that one of the gold gouramis and one of the blue paired off and started terrorizing (and killing) everything in the tank. The problem was that whenever I was in the room, they all hung out looking completely peaceful and I could not figure out what was causing all the deaths in my tank. Also, I usually found the fish bodies after other tank mates had been snacking, so I wasn't sure if they had been mangled before or after they died. I also didn't know as much about what to look for at the time. I finally caught them at it by hiding in the corner of the room with the room's lights off waiting to see if anything happened. I discovered all the gold/opaline/blue gouramis were pretty aggressive, and that the breeding pair were downright brutal. I returned all of the fish to the LFS the next day, but not before they had killed 2 pearl gouramis, 2 angelfish, and some guppies.

I do however love pearl gouramis. They seemed much more peaceful than the others.

Lucky for you that you know where to ask opinions before you get the fish, rather than just trust one person at an LFS.
 

Captain Hook

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Dahlia I appreciate your response. Those fish sounded like some real hellraisers. Luckily I don't really have that problem with my gold, opalines, and blues. In fact, I would say they have gotten more peaceful toward each other lately. Also, my gouramies have never bothered anyone but themselves, other fish in the tank include danios, barbs, and platies.

In mid December I will be moving the danios and platies to another tank and will have some room in the 35. I was hoping to make it more of a species tank, with only gouramies and barbs. I think I am going to try a pearl and keep a close eye on the tank. Hopefully everything will be fine.
 

TKOS

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I have 2 gouramis in my parents tank (1 honey, 1 chocolate) and the honey is definatley a bit on the aggressive side. No damage yet though and he has pretty much been sticking to fighting with the larger flying fox who is just as tough so it is funny to watch. I have found that the bigger they get the more aggressive they get.
 

Leopardess

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I find that gouramis (esp. the larger ones) are much like bettas in that they really have different personalities depending on the fish. Some gouramis are fine to mix, some will kill each other if put in the same tank.

I have 2 pearls (1m1f) and a male neon blue dwarf gourami in my 55g. I tried putting my platinum gourami in that tank since she had always been so peaceful, be she wouldn't stop chasing the male pearl so I ended up having to remove her.

However, I've heard of many instances of people successfully keeping all sorts and sizes of gouramis together.

Perhaps you could think about finding a pearl (one that is large enough to have a chance at holding his own), then add it to the tank on a day when you know will be home all day - to supervise what happens, perhaps on a friday so that you can watch them all weekend. If things don't go well, either have a plan where you can return it to the store or heck, get another tank for it!:)
 

Captain Hook

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Good suggestion about being home for the day so I will be able to supervise well. Yea I definitely planned on getting a good sized one, at least the same size if not a little bigger. The lfs store near me has large and XL ones, so hopefully there will be similar when I set up the 20.
 
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