gourami struggles

hiii so i’m new to this,

about a year or so ago my dad purchased a gourami, he was told in the shop that it was fine to live in a cold water tank with other fish. he got the gourami and a few others and put them in a generic kids fish tank ( not sure the litre but it’s a jaws one) and it’s pretty small.
he told me that the gourami instantly killed the other fish in the tank, including another gourami. he tried one more time to put more fish in and it killed them again.

he’s been in and out of the country so he’s given the fish to me to live with me. i’ve had it for a few months now and within the first few days i noticed the fish was quite shy and aggressive at times (would swim really fast round the tank and into the sides of the tank when i’d touch it). and it’s usually hiding in this shark cave thingy. i did some research and saw it was meant to be in a heated tank? so for a year it was in a cold tank, when i saw i got a heater and put it in the tank and his behaviour has changed a little bit sometimes i catch him swimming round a bit more.
my problem is that id really enjoy some other fish and i’m needing advice on what i could do to maybe make the gourami a bit happier? i’m happy to maybe get a new tank if necessary and some advice on what fish i could pair with it would be good. i’ve tried my hardest to google everything and i haven’t been too successful. only pet shop near me is a pets at home and i don’t think they’d be great since they sold my dad a gourami and told him to put it in a cold water tank lol.

thank you any help will be very appreciated.

ps. i don’t know the gender of the gourami but it can be aggressive, shy and it’s probably about 5/6cm long maybe bigger. i don’t know if that helps lol.
OH and also i only know it’s a gourami by looking at pictures online i’ve never actually been told it was a gourami! i’ll put a picture.

It looks like one of the colours of three spot gourami, one of the more aggressive species in the hobby. And yes it is a tropical fish.

These gouramis can be nasty towards other fish, even females can be. We had a member once who had a female of this species which had to be kept alone as she killed every fish put in the same tank.

This site has useful information about these gouramis

lei_akt said:

(would swim really fast round the tank and into the sides of the tank when i’d touch it).

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You don't want to touch your fish. That can mess up their slime coat that protects them from parasites and diseases.

lei_akt said:

been too successful. only pet shop near me is a pets at home and i don’t think they’d be great since they sold my dad a gourami and told him to put it in a cold water tank lol.

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Temperature: 75-86°F (24-30°C)

So you would need a heater to keep the temperature stable and warm for it.

Is this the tank you have?

If it is that tank, it's 15 litres/4 US gallons and I'm afraid it is too small for this fish; the gourami needs a much bigger tank. The minimum size for this fish is 90 X 30 x 30 cm.
If you are willing to purchase a larger tank we can help you set it up and transfer the fish safely. Once the gourami settles in, we can talk about other fish which may be suitable.