honey gourami with existing golden gourami?

dorabaker

hi :)
i've been discussing keeping gouramis with some people over in this thread: Tank mates
after reading that burnsbabe was successfully keeping more than one Honey Gourami in her 30 gallon, i'm curious about this...
i have a planted 15 gallon with a single golden gourami in it. i know this is probably going to be impossible because already the tank is kind of small for a potentially large fish, but i was wondering if it would be ok to put a honey or Dwarf Gourami in the tank as well...or is that a really, really stupid idea (it probably is.)
if that didn't work out, i have a spare tank i could put the Honey Gourami in. according to one of my reference books, an 18 inch long tank is ok for Dwarf Gourami species. that's what i've got...

or another idea, how about a female betta in the 15 gallon instead of a second gourami? i had a betta once with a Pearl Gourami and they never bothered each other.

just interested to hear people's opinions and personal experience :)

burnsbabe

I was interested to see what your other post was about. Slight correction, I have Dwarf Gouramis not the Honeys.

From my understanding the larger gouramis can be a bit mean to more timid fish. I'd be a bit wary of putting a honey in with a gold. Especially in a tank that size. If they were two of many inhabitants in a larger tank I'd be less worried. Just my $0.02.

thefishboy

You can mix the differant species of gourami, but you have to be careful because they may show signs of aggression.

dorabaker

yeah, i thought it probably was a bit risky. thanks though :) how about a betta, or is that a bad idea too?

Byron

Frankly, all of this is a bad idea. Gourami and Betta are the same type of fish, anabantids. All anabantids are aggressive in varying degrees, the males particularly. Keeping more than one male gourami in a tank is the same as keeping more than one male Betta in a tank; only the Betta has heightened aggressiveness through decades of breeding this trait into it (the Betta is technically a domesticated fish) so it is more obvious. But the same inherent natural instincts are there in all anabantids.

The tank to house more than one of these fish has to be large. The profiles of each species explains this. And let me make something clear, I do not make up the profiles from my own imagination. They are extensively researched from several of the acknowledged authoritative ichthyologists and sites. I only include information that is consistent among all these authorities. Where one may differ, I will note that. You can take the information in those profiles as accurate.

As I have mentioned previously in these related and other threads, each fish has its own uniqueness, just like dogs or cats or people. The inherent traits though are there, programmed in by nature, and we cannot change them. One particular fish may be less aggressive in this or that setting, while another may tear its tankmates to shreds in a 90g tank. Inga had this experience; in her 4-foot 60g tank, one gold gourami killed the others. That was not all that unusual, it was normal behaviour for that species.

In addition to species profiles, we also have general information on the Family for most of the categories; click on the Family group name, like "Anabantids" and you will see the general information.

Byron.

dorabaker

yeah i thought it was probably a bad idea. thanks byron :)