Dwarf Gouramis in my future????

[MAM]

plans are in the making for a future 29 gal tank (or possibly a little larger, will depend on my budget). i currently have a 10 gal with mollies and platies, and they are set. but i'd love to have more fish varieties in a separate tank, hence the 29gal. i've been reading this forum for about two months and after seeing aquarium pics have become interested not only in bettas (my betta tank arrives soon!!!!! can't wait to cycle it and then bring home my new betta), but also in dwarf gouramis (love their color and their shape) and clown loaches. i've done some extra research online to learn more about the dwarfs, still need to research loaches. one site said these two fish are compatible. but it also recommended buying at least 4 dwarfs, males and females. on here, i've read that may not be such a good idea. so, long story short, can two males live okay together or should i get one? the males are more colorful than females, and pardon me for being shallow, but its the males and their color that first attracted me to this fish, so i want a male. that, and i don't want to worry about them possibly breeding........... (will have enough babies in my livebearer tank). will males pick on other fish like the clown loaches? what other fish have you all found to be compatible with dwarf gouramis? i'm especially interested in the neon blues and the honeys. any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!

 

[Alien Anna]

If you want dwarf gouramis, get a mated pair or get a single male. More than one male will fight, although you might be able to get away with it in a large tank with plenty of territory. They don't generally harass other fish but being insect-eaters they may mistake the long, flowing fins of other fish for insect wings, and bite them.

 

[wuvmybetta]

my gouramis live extremely well with my clowns , clown loaches get HUGE, mine are in a 29 right now but will soon be moved to at least a 150
But gouramis are great, I'd recommend a pair,not 4. I had 4 once upon a time and ended up bringing 2 back to my lfs, I kept the blues and returned the reds because the reds seemed much more aggressive .
My pair never even attempted to breed so you may want to get a female/male combo. I'm pretty sure 2 males will bicker constantly, but ya never know

Have fun choosing, isn't it fun picking out new stock!?!?!?!

also....about loaches, there's so many to choose from. I have 9 queen botias in a 20 and they are ohhh soooo cute! They look like miniature clowns and they're very active & busy & max size is about 3"
I bought some red tailed zebra loaches last week and put them in with my eel & cichlids, they're about 2 1/2" long and they're absolutely precious! They waddle along the gravel and their faces are just soooo cute I want to kiss them , they're not in the least bit skittish at all, I actually have to nudge them out of the way when I gravel vac, very mellow fish & I love em,love em' ! I was taking pics of my eel last night and one of them came up and laid it's head on the eels tail and just looked at me as if he was posing to get in the pic too, it was the cutest thing ever

 

[AllusiveLife]

DWARF GROUMIES ARE OF THE DEVIL....

I witnessed my moms dwarf groumie which she got like a week ago Bite off my females guppy tail, the tail has only 20% of it left... They are evil

 

[Alien Anna]

DWARF GROUMIES ARE OF THE DEVIL....

I witnessed my moms dwarf groumie which she got like a week ago Bite off my females guppy tail, the tail has only 20% of it left... They are evil

No, just not very bright. They probably thought the guppies tail was the biggest, most tastely water fly they'd ever seen.

 

[wuvmybetta]

 

[MAM]

note to self, no guppies with my gouramis.........

any other suggestions of fish TO go with them? thanks for the Queen Botias suggestion wuvmybetta, will do some more research on them too.

 

[MAM]

wuvmybetta, do queen notias go by any other names? haven't found them, just clowns and other loaches

 

[juliethegr8t]

Just wanted to let you know that I have kept my dwarf gouramis with cherry barbs, zebra danios, panda corys, and a weird green tiger barb. I had a neon blue who sadly passed away fairly recently - but he was a wonderful fish. Thankfully I still have my red to keep me content. He's gorgeous - I really love dwarf gouramis, they have such personality! Mine doesn't bother any of my other fish, and they don't bother him. However, when I kept both my dwarf males together, they did fight and fight - I eventually had to separate them because I was scared of serious injury. Anyways, dwarfs are pretty compatible with most small, peaceful fish. However, as mentioned before, don't put them with long tailed brightly colored fish like guppies - they may mistake them for competition, oorrrrr like Alien Anna mentioned, yum, food!

 

[wuvmybetta]

try looking on loaches.com under the botia species section, they have a few pics , they have some fancy scientific name but I forget it atm

 

[pebbles]

hi, hope you get your gouramis they are gorgeous little things,i have dwarf golds and pearls in the same tank along with ,beacon tetras and corys amongst others.i would only get two because it is almost impossible to sex the dwarfs when young,and if you end up with 4 males you will have a problem.i suspect my two dwarf golds are males but although they 'square up' occasionally most of the time they just chase and play. pebbles

 

[sarahp]

i have 2 male dwarf gouramis in my 180l tank and occassionally one will get bossy with the other and chase him round the tank but he doesn't seem to harm him the other one shakes him off and hides in the plants for a while. The only grudge i have against them is when we have had a fish die in the tank the gouramis eat their eyes ! YUK