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I'd eventually like to get a pair of gouramis for my 29 gallon planted community tank, but I've heard conflicting opinions on how aggressive they are.

Currently I have 8 pristella tetras in the tank, and I plan on adding 5-6 cories as well.

What species of gourami would be the most compatable? I'm just looking for something relatively peaceful and not huge :-)

chocolate gourami, sparkling gourami, and any of the dwarf gourami.

I would say the pearl gourami is the most peaceful

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the snakeskin gourami, is often overlooked, it gets to be a larger gourami, but very peaceful.

Snakeskins are probably a bit large. For a very small gourami sparkling gouramis are fairly peaceful. They pretty much ignore all the peaceful fish in my tank. However if my blue gourami threatens the little gouramis they'll all gang up to nip at his fins until he goes away. The tetras and cories don't interest them. For something slightly larger and more common a dwarf gourami should be fine. Mostly you just want to stay away from paradise fish and bettas since it's a hit or miss whether they'll get along.

I've kept a number of gouramis, so these are my opinions based on experience:

Peaceful:
moonlight
pearl
sparkling
snakeskin

Aggressive:
three spot
honey (with other honeys)
dwarf (same)

Again remember it depends on the personality of the individual fish.

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Sparkling gouramis are peaceful, but very curious and if you have shrimp or snails, they may get pecked to death. Also, with sparkling gouramis, get more than two so that one doesn't get bullied too much.
I have found Pearl gouramis to be very peaceful, but again, having just two, one will get chased a lot while the other bullies. If you have the room, one male to two or three females makes a wonderful little harem. This is true of most gouramis. The dwarf gouramis like the powder blue or honey/sunset gouramis are also very peaceful, but a male and female together will still result in the female getting chased a lot, so three or more gouramis are your best bet for a peaceful tank.

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Pearl Gourami are very peaceful & their colours are superb. I will surly recommend them.


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I've had very good experiences with opaline and gold gouramis (I believe, though, that they are the same species) and not so good experiences with dwarves.

Sparkling gouramis are peaceful, but very curious and if you have shrimp or snails

That was quite a surprise for me...I have MTS in the tank my sparkling gouramis live in and they stalk and attack the snails!

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I've never had dwarf gouramis cause a problem with anything but another gourami. Usually they hide in the corner or get picked on. My blue gourami rules the tank but hasn't actually done damage to another fish. He just chases them away from his spot.
Out of all the labyrinth fish I've had I like my sparkling gouarmis the best. They are beyond curious and spend the whole day searching the tank for something new or interesting to do. Slow moving targets like snails are great fun but fish aren't interesting. I set up a tank just for them away from my snails. Surprisingly the ghost shrimp that were already in that tank are still alive even without many hiding places. The gouramis haven't gone near them.

I have had Dwarfs and Pearls,
and I can tell you Pearls are super
friendly, super peaceful, and super
beautiful.


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