Gourami could definitely survive the trip back, they can breath from the surface.The one I stop at occasionally has a good many fish. About 40 tanks or so, all of them with 20+ fish in them. Trouble for me is that the last time I talked to them about buying a fish there the girl talked me out of it, saying they don't have oxygen so the fish might not make the 60 mile trip back to my place. They have beautiful dwarf gouramis there that I'm still thinking about buying some of.