Strange LFS advice on pearl gouramis?

finsNfur

finsNfur

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May 29, 2008
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I set up a new 29 gallon tank this week, and cycled it using a filter from another established tank. I put some guppies from another of my tanks into it, and yesterday bought 5 neons from my LFS. I decided to risk adding another fish today, since I noticed their gouramis looked healthy. They had a tankful of sunburst and pearl gouramis. I noticed there was a bag floating in the tank today with one pearl gourami in it, and I asked the girl if it was new. She said it had been brought in by another customer who didn't know that gouramis were agresssive; this one was aggressive, and did I want it? LOL, I said no thank you, I did NOT want an aggressive fish. She said gouramis should only be kept with other gouramis, because they are agressive towards other fish, such as neons. (she obviously remembered me from yesterday) I told her I had been researching pearl gouramis, and I thought they were peaceful, but she said no. So I bought a pearl gourami anyway. :silly: And now he's floating in his little baggy in my aquarium, with neons. Please tell me he's not likely to attack them, the LFS was wrong, right?

Oh, and I do know not to add any more fish for awhile, I just couldn't resist since my LFS doesn't usually have many fish, let alone healthy ones!
 
I never had any type of gourami attack other fish.... I wouldn't doubt the Giant Gourami would take nips out of little fish though :S.

Male gouramis usually have a go at each other, sparing, but that is about it.
 
I had a (male) Dwarf red graummie that was extremely aggressive, I did however I have a pair and he did attack everything else in the tank (apistogramma caucatoidies).

I have also heard quite a few scare stories about graummies while working at my LFS.

I probably would have told you the same thing if you were to go into my store. It dosen't mean that all graummies are aggressive it mean we do not want to give a very persistant customer incorrect advise that would cause them to become angry, comeback, and cause problems:lipssealedsmilie:. Better safe then sorry IMO, if you do buy the fish and you prove that girl wrong more power to you.


Bottom line, you CANNOT say either scenario is true:
"all graummies are peacful"
"all graummies are aggressive"

hence the token term
":mad2:SEMI:confused: AGGRESSIVE:perv:"
A creative play of words displaying to the customers that the LFS really dosen't know how that fish is going to behave (nobody does:welcome:) its true.
 
I have found that Gouramis are best kept like a Betta...the only one of their kind...but also with smaller fish! I would NEVER suggest you keep them with other large body fish like Angels, Bettas, or anything else of that size...but also have found them quite peaceful with smaller schooling fish-like your tetras. Oh and also it is in general not a good idea-unless you have a very large, well planted tank-to keep more then one male, I have seen it work well when people have 2 females and one male, but have also seen the two females fight. And also not a good idea-IMO-not to keep Gouramis with fish like Tiger Barbs and other fin-nipping, schooling but aggressive fish.

So in general when I worked at a pet store I would normally suggest to people to just buy a Goruami if: 1.That was going to be their one large body fish in their tank and then just wanted smaller piece full fish(and bottom feeders if they wanted.) or 2. They had a large tank that was to some "over planted"(also IMO there is NEVER a time that you can be over planted) and they were going to get 2 females and 1 male.

So IMO...you should be fine:) Just don't plan on getting any large bodied fish, or aggressive schooling fish!



Oh....and Good luck:D
 
Not all gouramis are conspecific aggressive, in fact pearls are some of the species that can be kept in groups along with honeys, sparklings, licorice, and the other smaller gouramis (minus dwarfs). Pearls shouldn't be aggressive unless they were cramped.

Other than those species a gourami tank sounds like a bad idea to me, and it's certainly not something you need to do in order to keep them. Some people haven't had problems with multiple gouramis but I personally wouldn't...
 
Males are usually the meaner ones. I once had 8 small pearls in my tank. After they grew to about 3+ inches the males started to fight. Now I have just have one female.

PS--The males do look better.
 
John - write out "gourami" 100 times. ;)

For some reason it's the most misspelt word in fishkeeping, beating even "cichlid" (the punishment for spelling it "chiclid" should be severe)

But I digress.

The LFS had it the wrong way round. Gouramis are aggressive towards other gouramis. Not to other fish. Having said that, Pearls are amongst the most placid going.
 
johnpeezy said:
I had a (male) Dwarf red graummie that was extremely aggressive, I did however I have a pair and he did attack everything else in the tank (apistogramma caucatoidies).

I have also heard quite a few scare stories about graummies while working at my LFS.

I probably would have told you the same thing if you were to go into my store. It dosen't mean that all graummies are aggressive it mean we do not want to give a very persistant customer incorrect advise that would cause them to become angry, comeback, and cause problems:lipssealedsmilie:. Better safe then sorry IMO, if you do buy the fish and you prove that girl wrong more power to you.


Bottom line, you CANNOT say either scenario is true:
"all graummies are peacful"
"all graummies are aggressive"

hence the token term
":mad2:SEMI:confused: AGGRESSIVE:perv:"
A creative play of words displaying to the customers that the LFS really dosen't know how that fish is going to behave (nobody does:welcome:) its true.
Click to expand...
:iagree:so true...
 
KarlTh said:
The LFS had it the wrong way round. Gouramis are aggressive towards other gouramis. Not to other fish. Having said that, Pearls are amongst the most placid going.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I put them up with Sparklers.

Perhaps the tank was so crappy it felt stressed and chose to act agressively? Maybe it was just an assertive male? All gouramis CAN be agressive.
 
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