Dwarf Gouramis

M

misscrosson

Aquarium Addict
Sep 7, 2005
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Ontario, Canada
I've been noticing over the past few days that my two gouramis have been, from what it seems fighting.... like hitting each other with their tales, and biting each other on their sides.... I thought that gouramis could live together???

When I first started my tank up, I had a pair of dwarf gouramis, which I believe may have been females because their colours were very dull and had no red.... and they both were fine with each other, until one died due to a fish sitter who over fed my fish and killed a good number of them cause of it, and the other seemed to have died from being lonely.. =(...

Anyways, I bought a new pair over a week ago, I believe they might be males because their colours are very bright, and they have red... and they seem to fight.... what should I do?
 
Gourami's of the same species tend to be very territorial, especially males. However, if they are of different species and they have enough room they can be kept together. I would recommend taking one of the males back and exchanging it for a female. I used to have a male and a female dwarf gourami that got along great. Unfortunately the male died and the female was very depressed until I introduced another male to the tank.
 
Hmmm... I dont believe that my local fish store takes fish back, and the 2nd closes fish store is 3hrs away (I live in the middle of no where lol) .. but, I'll look into it...

They mainly seem to just fight during feeding.. I have a 70gallon, so... would they be fine if left alone?
 
I would definantly call your LFS and see what the policy is. However, with a 70 gallon, if it has lots of hiding spots, which would give the one being picked on a place to escape to, I would think they should be ok. I would keep an eye on them though and if things get really out of hand you might need to remove one to a seperate tank if you have one. Also, during feeding, you might want to try and feed them on opposite sides of the tank if possible. That might cut down on the aggression.
 
If I was to add in other types of gouramis, would this also cutt down the aggression? At the pet store all the gouramis where in a tank together, and they two fish were fine until afew days ago, but I only notice during feeding their aggression, and they both seem to stay on different sides of the tank...
 
In a 70 they will be fine, and as you already noticed they will stay on there own side until one crossed that imaginary line which will happen at feeding if you only feed in one spot. Btw I have 2 in a 29 and they hate each other, but tolerate each other if they stay on each others side.
 
I'm not convinced that they will be fine in the long run. I had two dwarves in a 29 gallon that got along great for almost a year. The behavior you have described was the same thing that I saw mine do after a few months. It seemed harmless (and was at the time), but later on the aggression increased to the point that one of them had to be removed from the tank before it was killed. A 70 gallon tank allows much more space for territories, but I would be keeping a close eye on the situation and be prepared to move one of the fish if necessary.
 
My male dwarf gourami is generally too concerned with eating during feeding time to really care about other fish. It was my impression that they were very piggy eaters and any over territorialness I could attribute to his fish brain saying it was hungry. It wasnt until I added two females that things got easier to manage. For one thing, he never bothered any other tank mates other than the females. Since I had added two females, no one female would be singled out and bullied. I would say that in a 70 gallon tank they should have more than enough room to spread out. Females really are an interesting addition to a tank though, though they may seem dull in color, they are really quite interesting. I'd say good luck in finding one, I had to hound my LFS like a fiend to catch them on a new shipment day that happend to have 3-4 females in it. Since I've had them spawn once too.
 
While I do not have any Dwarf Gourami's I have 4 Honey Gouramis and 1 Moonlight Gourami in my 65G and they all seem to do fine without any sign's of aggression. The Honey's are nearly 2" in size and the Moonlight is almost 6" or so and it seems to mother them more then anything while they follow it.

I've been reading alot on Gourami's lately though and certain species of them seem more aggressive then others. Do you have many hiding places in the tank, well planted etc? Or maybe add a few more .. I got my honeys in a group of 4 to let them form a small shoal and it seemed to work.
 
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