New Gouramis Owner

[Morquinn]

Well after losing 35 livebearers to a disease from adding two others a week before.. I have ended one journey to start another. I gutted the tank and instead of rocks I went with sand, although there are rocks in the tank (kind of hard to explain, will need to get a pic) I have purchased 4 gouramis...2 pearls, a lavender and a blue gourami, and I love them, they are very beautiful. These will be the only inhabitants of my 30 gallon tank, besides the two corys I bought for clean-up. Im hoping to learn alot more about these guys from reading this section of the forum, just wanted to say HI!

 

[zoekin8yg]

Did you totally gut the tank and kill the beneficial bacteria? I hope you didnt, otherwise your gouramis might suffer during the cycling

 

[Morquinn]

I let the tank cycle.. I also kept the same filter in

 

[zoekin8yg]

phew just checking Next thing is what sexes have you got?

 

[Morquinn]

They couldnt tell me what genders were which, but since now that I have read on how to sex them im going to have to go home and take a look. Im not at my house at the moment where the fish are.. will let ya know when I know.

Oh ya and they also told me that they wont breed in a home aquaria.. pfft.. I think they were wrong

 

[zoekin8yg]

your lfs is frankly pathetic if they couldnt even sex the fish! The problem with gouramis is that ideally they should be in 3s 1 male to 2 females, if they are all male you are probably going to have problems with aggression. They dont always breed but they can!

 

[sylvia]

The lavender and blue are the same species (trichogaster trichopterus). There are many different color morphs and they are collectively often called 'three-spots'. They can be extremely aggressive - particularly if you have 2 males in which case they are likely to kill each other. Even a male/female pair is risky as the male will start chasing the female around and can, potentialy, stress her to death. If you have 2 females, you may still have one being particularly aggressive towards the other as one will always be mroe dominant. Hopefuly, with the pearls there, this won't be an issue.

Basicaly, keeping these fish as pairs is a bad idea. Also, they will very easily breed. If they do, you'll need to either detroy the bubblenest or seperate the male as he will become very aggressive. The best thing to do with these is to add another female if you have 2 female or a pair. However, if you have 2 males, one must be rehomed/returned.

Pearl gouramies are lovely fish but more peaceful than three-spots. Though they can hold their own, their more social nature and smaller size means they do better with others of their own kind or smaller gouramies. They also do best in trios or large groups so a pair is not ideal. Having said that, even two males can usualy co-exist quite peacefuly.

If you are lucky enough to have only one male three-spot and your pearls are not both male as well, you may manage to keep the tank peaceful without changes. However, to be honest, you will probably find you need to change things in the future.

BTW, you said you 'let the tank cycle'. What exactly do you eman by this? You need to have been adding a source of ammonia. Just letting the tank run wouldn't do it. Sorry if I've misudnerstood but do monitor your water parameters.

 

[Morquinn]

Ok, so it looks to me, that I have all females..

Both of my 3 spot gouramis have rounded dorsal fins

the two pearl gouramis were alittle different..one seemed to have a longer dorsal fin, but both had the same looking anal fin.. they both have that orange on their chest..if I had to guess I'd say one is male and one is female..

I think im gonna have to take a picture and let you guys decide, its kind of hard since they all look the same and the differences are quite subtle, if anything.

 

[Morquinn]

Well im taking the blue 3 spot gourami back to the store, he has been nothing but SUPER aggressive to all the fish, even the corys. The other ones are nice and peaceful and havent shown any signs of aggression, even my lavender 3 spot is quite peaceful. So yeah.. thats the jist of it.

 

[xtremefishyfan]

I have recently brought a powder blue and a dwarf gourami, i think they are both males. After reading the posts will they fight till death? Should I take one back?
They are already showing some aggressive behaviour now and then towards each other, they are sort of trying to touch each others sides with their mouths. Please someone tell me!!

 

[sylvia]

Dwarfs are not like three-spots and normaly won't fight to the death. However, your tank is too small for them (it's about 15 gallons right?) so rehoming one of the two is a good idea.

 

[xtremefishyfan]

Well my dwarf gourami is now dead, it was curled up in the corner breathing rapidly and it's normally white face was all blue and grey (bruised). I left it over night and it had died by the morning.