[ruusumari33]

When I was a kid (almost 30 years ago) I had a 25g tank and two blue gouramis. Bigger one killed the other. Since then I have not been fond of gouramis.

Yesterday I bought 3 gold gouramis (I know they are the same fish). I don’t really quite know how that happened. I was only supposed to get 6 corydoras schwartzi, but the gold gouramis’ bright yellowness just drew me to them. They are so beautiful.

Now I’m worried I might have made a mistake. I thought they would be fine in my 55g (47inches long). All three are female and the pet shop keeper said they would not fight or bully smaller fish. When I got home I started reading about them from some forums and people seem to have very mixed experiences with these. Some say even the females can get aggressive - usually when they are more mature.

My Yellow Sisters are almost 3 inches long (so quite young still). At what size/age do these usually start to show aggression (if they ever do)? How does a "all girls club" usually work? Currently they are swimming around in all layers getting to know their new surroundings. When they go near the bottom, my corydoras can swim very closely around them and they don’t really pay any attention.

I really don’t want to take them back to the store as they really are very beautiful and I love their liveliness and the fact that they are not at all timid, but if they start to bully my corydoras, they will have to go. If they get aggressive, do they usually just go after other larger fish (which I don't have) and each other or are they a danger to corydoras?

 

[fish monger]

You probably don't have to worry about the Gourami bullying your Corys. My experience with Gourami has been that they have a definite pecking order that usually goes from larger to smaller. With three, the aggression should be spread out enough. I've had three Blue Gourami for about a year now ( 1 male, 2 females) and if anything, the chasing has decreased.

 

[ruusumari33]

Thank you for your reply Fishmonger. It’s good to hear this might work out. I love corys but I really would like to keep these gouramis too.

 

[Yogi]

Yeah I have 4 Gourami's in my 60 gallon tank and I had no clue they are aggressive until I read about some people having bad exeperiences with them. I guess it depends on the fish and the aquarium you have. I have had absolutely no issues and I even keep Ghost, Cherry, and Yellow shrimp in there with them and they leave them completely alone. Usually Cherry and Yellow shrimps are a good snack for them but mine leave them alone. This is just a theory but it might be because I feed them well and a variety of different foods. They get Brine Shrimp and Shrimp pellets from time to time so I think this might be enough to get them a shrimp fix lol.