I agree, dwarf gourami stocks are sensitive as of late. And I would never recommend more than one male per tank, and if you have females you would want two or three per male. This goes for the more conspecific aggressive species (three spot/opaline/etc., and dwarfs). Honey and pearl gouramis are more peaceful and do better in a group but with pearls it's generally advised to still have the same male-female ratio. Honey gouramis do well in pairs from what I have heard.
I, too, have found the dwarves to be very fragile. I've had only two so far, but both didn't live more than 4 or 5 months. I've had pretty good luck with angels and gouramis living together. I have a single angel with a pearl and a single angel with a gold at the moment. I found the angels to be more combative with each other. I've had to separate the three I have. I suppose that's because they are the same gender. The angel in my 72 gallon is the most aggressive. He/she does chase the pearl gourami if she it gets into his/her territory, but leaves her alone most of the time. Both angels and gouramis are beautiful, alert, interesting fish, tho, and I highly recommend them!
If I may add my opinion, I would also suggest a neon blue dwarf gourami. They have such a calm and peaceful disposition. However, in my experiences, they really demand perfect water conditions as well as a quiet environment. [I like loud music and to cut a long story short, this obviously stressed one neon I had and it ended up dying]
I would also very easily suggest dwarf honey gourami's. They are much smaller than the blue neon's and as such, are a little more timid. Even so, they are perfect for angel fish [at least in my experiences] I had two of them as well and they were always together. It was rather cute. I had a medium sized angel fish in there as well as a 18 cm bottom feeder. There were never any problems that I noticed!
Hope this helps!
I would advise against getting the larger blue gouramis you see, commonly known as opaline (or three-spot) gouramis. They are pretty aggressive gouramis, esp. towards angelfish. If you want angels in your tank, it'd be wise to rule out opalines altogether. A male gourami with 2 females or a single male dwarf gourami would go well with angels. I think you could easily add a pair of blue rams to this mix, too.
I would advise against getting the larger blue gouramis you see, commonly known as opaline (or three-spot) gouramis. They are pretty aggressive gouramis, esp. towards angelfish. If you want angels in your tank, it'd be wise to rule out opalines altogether. A male gourami with 2 females or a single male dwarf gourami would go well with angels. I think you could easily add a pair of blue rams to this mix, too.
You may have a bit of a hard time getting hold of female dg's, but just ask the local fish stores near you whether they can get some for you. Big box stores like Petsmart and Petco won't be able to get you females, so asking privately owned stores is your best bet. Good luck!
Well I picked up a male dwarf gourami today. He's blue and red, sparkley. I still haven't found an Angel i like so I'm just going to keep checking back. We'll see how it goes once I get the Angel.
They didn't have any females. He said once in a while they'll get one in. Maybe I'll have to stick with the one.. and then maybe I'll be able to get two german blue rams anyway? I dunno, seems a bit overstocked.
if you wouldn't have had gotten that gourami, and had room, i would've advised an opaline/3 spot/blue gourami, in my experience, the opaline i have does marvelously with angels. i've had him with three and he's best friends with one and the others he really paid no attention to. i had more problems with the angels picking on each other.
