Do not keep more than one Gourami in the same tank

Something has come to my attention that some fish keepers tried to keep multiple gourami in the same tank. It is a big mistake!

This is from my first hand experience, that Dwarf gourami (or any other gourami for that matter) should be kept away from each other. When you have more than one gourami in the same tank, they will be aggressive toward each other because they are a territorial fish species.

The infamous Siamese Fighter Fish (betta) is in fact in the Gourami family. Many people might know betta should be kept alone, they really don't know about gourami are the same case.

I did not know better when I first started my fish keeping hobby, and I foolishly got 6 dwarf gourami (3 male and 3 female) for a 40 gallon tank. It was a free for all fighting. Male attack male, female attack female, male attack female... In the end, I had to return 4 of them and left only a pair of 1 male and 1 female. Although they spawned together, they weren't exactly on friendly terms even during the spawning. I had to separate them as soon as they stopped spawning (as I should).

The offspring weren't peace loving siblings either. Those home bred little dwarf gourami started to show aggression toward each other as early as only 4 weeks old. At the time, they did not even look like fish yet.

At 8-week-old, one male dwarf gourami just started to show color, and they've become more aggressive than ever toward each other.

Check out this video. Look at these two dwarf gourami siblings.




Although in this video you see the aggression is one sided from the brother (the bigger one with red color), off the screen I have caught the little sister attacking her brother on at least two occasions. She was sneaking up from behind and tried to hit him.

The conclusion for all fish keepers, please do not put two gourami in the same tank in order to avoid unnecessary injuries or even death of your fish.

Thank you for this advice, I'll have to keep it in mind. Also, nice video thank you for including it. Howeviple, so I do not know how it wil end up working.er, I heard that you can keep 1 male with 2-3 females in order to try and get them to breed. So if you are interested in breeding the dwarf gourami how do you recommend going about and doing it. Nice aquarium by the way!

I have only kept 1 male dwarf gourami in a 55 gallon tank and never multiple so I don't know how it would end up working out.

You can't keep 1 male and 2 to 3 female gourami in the same tank. They are not guppies. Like I have said (and tried), the female dwarf gourami are also aggressive toward other gourami. Territorial and aggressive is not just a male thing when it comes to gourami. So in this case, not only the 1 male will be aggressive toward the females, the female will also be aggressive toward each other as well as to that male if given the chance.

To breed dwarf gourami, it is recommended that you need to let the female establish her territory first in a tank of herself. Condition her with live food. Then add a male to the tank. The male will be less aggressive since it wasn't his territory to begin with. If you have enough fine leaf plants in that tank, the male will try to build a bubble nest with those plants. Once the nest is built, the female will go to the male for spawning. You can see the link in my signature for the videos.

I know, I used to keep a school of 8 kissing gourami in a large garden pond with enough space for them to at least stay away from each other and keep the peace! I used to live in the tropics and the temperature and amount of light was optimal for their growth and well-being. They each grew almost a foot long!

Luckily the large pond and dense vegetation (I put in lots of water lilies) gave them enough space to avoid fighting with and killing each other.

Yes, gouramis are extremely territorial and aggressive with each other and even with other fish!