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ok, i have read they are best kept in pairs, but at the same time, arent pairs going to be more agressive in a community tank?

i am for sure getting one, they seem peacefull and well behaved, and i would like one for my 29 gallon. with one in the 29 gallon tall i will have 7 lemon tetras,7 corys(2-3 inches),1 Bolivian ram that is very shy and well behaved, never leaves the bottom 12" of the 24" tall tank.

i am afraid that two sunset dwarf gouramis might be overloading the tank, or that they might become agressive to themselves or the other fish in a 29 gallon...any thoughts???

will one be happy on its own in such an enviroment? lots of foliage and hiding places, good filtration and water quality, and while the lemons are "spazzy", they arent nippy or agressive, and not that active compared to alot of schooling fish i have seen.

so, discuss please

I think that 1 Gourami will be fine on it's own in your tank.



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ok, thanks for the input. now i just need to get a taller piece of driftwood so he will have more places to hang around...maybe add a couple floating plants

Just to let you know, over the past 3 years I have had 6
of these sunset red dwarf gouramis, my sister has had 4.
None of them have lived very long. This is due to the fact that the red color gene is the recessive gene, and with breeding a recessive, many health issues often tag along.
I wish you luck if you buy them, but they have never been healthy anywhere I have seen them.
They are way less aggressive than the regular dwarf gouramis too, even bordering on the verge of extremely timid.


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ahhhh...so thats why the lil buggers are so well behaved! their father is also their brother! lol...

well, i am going to try my luck with one and see what happens. if it doesnt last very long i will look at replacing it with a differant species. one reason i want them is not only do they seem very docile, but they are also they best condition gouramis i can find around here. someone in my town breeds them, so my lfs always has really healthy ones. the other stores around here have some that arent that great...i havent seen any nice blue dwarfs around

i have been keeping them for 3 years now so far my female has not died and is about 4 years old. I have had 2 males in the time that i have been keeping them. Buying the next after the last had died. You must keep them in pairs! if not one will become sad espicialy males and will die. One tip with this spieaces is that to get best colour you must change the water every 2-3 weeks and must have frozen or live foods. They seem to prefer bloodworms out of the lot.

I hope this will help you.

ahhh, thanks for the help. if i get two, will i have an over crowding issue? from what i have read, they stay small though. will two gouramis,1 bolivian ram,7 lemon tetras,and 7 corys overload a 29 gallon? it seems like alot in the tank,maybe i am wrong.

the filtration is good, i have a airstone, and do weekly water changes. i feed live,frozen,and high quality flake foods, coloration shouldnt be a problem, the lemons i have are a nice full yellow and after a few days my ram has started coloring up nicely as well.

so, it looks like if i get one i need a companion then? i really dont want to part with anything i have in the tank, i am very fond of the corys, the lemons seem like perfect dither fish...and i just got the ram and he intrigues me

so, any thoughts?

Ok if you are going to get 2 i would recomend male and female. You could have 2 females but there will not be a lot of colour. But 2 males in that size tank there will be fights! No that is not over crowding and to my knowledge the gouramis will get on will with the fish u have. Good luck with that

guessing your cories are about 2in each, youre left w/ about 5in of fish, so i say go for the 2 gouramis. just dont get any more fish after this.

ok, now we run into problems...a male female pair i read becomes territorial, and i worry about them ganging up and trashing their tankmates...i have no problem getting a female though, since the breeder is local he can get them into his pet store no problem. now...the problem is if they become agressive...then i fear for the other fish.

i do have a single bolivian ram in the tank, i dont know if it is male or female. its non agressive, but it is starting to display agressive feeding behavior in the tank towards to the other fish now that it is getting settled in (4 days in the tank). will there be disputes between the ram and gouramis??? or between a school of 7 lemons and the gouramis? cause they share the same water space for the most part .

i want whats best for the fish, so if it will get lonely i do not wish to deprive it of a tank mate.

also, i can keep the minimum of 6 lemon tetras if need be, curently i only have 5, was going to add two more once the ram was settled in and i had a scare with one of the tetras having a bump of some sort, it seems to be a non lethal non transmitable tumour from old age near his eye. no other fish affected and he is otherwise normal in coloration,health,and activity. so, i could go with the minimum school of tetras, but there will still be 7 corys (go figure,one thats mismatched in the school,a bronze with julii/leapord corys,is the one i am most attached to, had her for about 2 years now and since she grew up the first year and a half in a ten gallon by herself(no one told me corys liked to school,and now i cant even get her to school with other bronze, so i just added 6 julii) i cant part with her) and of course there is still one ram.

i dunno...lets hope that would be enough room, and that they wouldnt be too agressive... i love the look and watching gouramis

anyone know if you have to have a female for the male sunset dwarf gourami?

i finally got one and added to the tetras to make it a school of 6 lemon tetras. everyone seems happy, the gourami is a bit skiddish, but otherwise seems content. not agressive at all. the ram only chases the gourami at feeding time and only if the gourami is trying to steal his food. otherwise the gourami occupies the top of the tank and stays under plant cover and areas he feels safe unless the room is dim, then he swims around the whole tank.

the tetras are happy now, and the corys and ram get along well.

my only concern is what would happen if i added a female. im afraid they might pair up and i could run into agression problems, or that perhaps the male and female might not get along and the male would chase her into a corner(people have told me that happens fairly often with gourami pairs in smaller tanks).

any thoughts?

Last edited by Reun at 17-Jan-2006 23:35