Mixing Gouramis Species

go honey or thick-lipped along with the pearls, they are a lot more friendly. Mine are very playful towards eachother at times, and at other times pick out territories but don't ever hurt eachother. I have heard only one male dwarf gourami is recommended, but for such a tank you should try to find the more rare and duller female dwarf gouramis. I would really recommend only ONE single male dwarf gourami out of all the types, i'm sorry but that means only one powder or flame or other types....although in all honesty i'm pulling this info right out of a book that i have, it's new but not my own experience with the dwarf gourami. I could imagine your tank handling two, but they will fight when they meet......on the other hand imagine how many pearl gouramis you could get! Gouramis are also my fav fish, I think there is room for a gourami in every trop tank! ;)
 
When sites say dwarf gouramis are peaceful, they are refering to the set of up one male for every 5 females give or take. You'll get mating too, which is always fun with gouramis (bubble nests and courting ect)
 
Well, like I said, I already have 3 powder blue males in my 10 gallon in quarantine waiting to go into the 125 next week. I bought them together and have not seen any fighting at all. they actually tend to hang out together as well. I would get some females but I cannot find any and i think that makes the males more aggressive, since now they would have something to compete for.

I think I am still leaning towards 3 male powder blue, 3 male flame and then get 5 pearl, mixed. I guess if it doesnt work out I can give them back to the LFS. With a 125 I would think that these guys would have plenty of room to spread out. the tank is very well planted with howort at the top and has alot of hiding places.
 
i got 3 powder blue gourimies and a german ram and a rhino plec...gonna move him when he gets to big.....in my 25 gallon tank....i notice they chase each outher at times but i dont think they will kill each outher......i used to have 2 rams but one lost its color and died....but i never noticed aggression towards it
 
You know, I swear fish have ESP. Of course after I say I have seen no aggression between my 3 males, I saw a little chasing out of territory today. I think I will look for female powder blues, or maybe even female flames or just female dwarfs in general if I cant find the powder blues (maybe Ill make anew color , lol). And then I will get a group of Pearls, since they are my fav anyway. Is 1:1 sex ratio bad? Do females always have to out number the males?
 
I have 6 gouramis in my 29 gallon tank, 3 diferent species, two spot, one with a line all the way along it, and blueish red ones, they all seem somewhat aggressive and nip at each other, and do the kissing thing, but they don't seem to hurt each other, I haven't seen any damaged fins yet and they have all lived in the aquarium for three months, so I just consider them "playing" and they all seem healthy and growing...
 
A bunch of dwarf male gouramis in a small tank won't be particularly agressive towards each other as there's no room for them each to set up territories. It's how the petstores get away with 15 males in a tank seemingly peaceful. Look close though and you'll see they each try to stay equidistant from each other and facing in different directions.

I've got two male powderblue in my 20gal and will be immensely happy when I can move them into our fast-approaching 125gal to give them more space. As it is, one's very stressed and always hiding from the dominant.

As for females, gee. I'd love to find some. The chain stores never carry them and won't order them and none of the LFS I've tried recently carry them OR order them on even a very irregular basis. Seems in this part of the country (Arizona) they're hard to come by.

Edit: my second powder blue dwarf died approximately three days after this post. With him gone, my remaining gourami has shown markedly decreased agression towards our other fish.
 
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I have a LFS where the owner is really nice and I think wants my business. he goes down to Miami twice a week to pick up fish and sai that if I tell him what I am looking for he will try to get it. He will also leave them in their bags for me so I can just pick them up and bring them home and not have to worry about the added stress of them having to aclimate to 2 tanks. I think I am going to tell him to look for any female dwarfs:powder, flame, or just dwarf. I am sure the males won't care, right?

Then I will get a large group of Pearls. Do you think I could do 5 females and 3 males? or is that too many?
 
The males won't care and may try to breed with any of them. I think 3 females to a male is a good ratio.
 
Web Gazelle said:
The males won't care and may try to breed with any of them. I think 3 females to a male is a good ratio.
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Thats what I figure, so I can still get my variety of color and make everyone happy. Now if I can just find the females? If I did 3 females to every male that means I would have to get 9 female dwarfs, which would make 12 total in a 125 gallon. That doeant seem to leave me roon for my 8 Pearls. That would be 20 Gouramis in there. Isn't that a bit much if I plan to have other fish in there too?
 
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