Dwarf Gourami

[cawah]

Will a dwarf gourami be happy in a five gallon tank? How about two? I've been reading through old threads for info on these fish, and it seems this fish either go with five gallons or ten. I don't want to buy one and find that it needs ten gallons instead of five.

If a dwarf gourami is not a good choice, i will go with a betta for the five gal.

Thanks!

 

[Iggy]

1 Dwarf gourami, like a honey dwarf will do fine in a 5 gallon tank, but 2 is not a good idea.

 

[Velvet AciD]

I'd say one D. Gourami would be fine in a 5G, but any more than that and you'll have territory issues.

 

[jclif1995]

get some nice substrate and fake plants to dress it up a tad. could even have some driftwood.

 

[LadySarah]

I agree about only 1 gourami in the 5. I have a ten with two and they have territory issues. I have only had the second since Friday though and I think that they are starting to work out their issues. I am going to add more plants though to help breakup their line of vision.

 

[twoluvcats]

good luck...i couldn't break up the territory enough in a 29 to keep 2.

 

[jclif1995]

my dwarfs also had issues in a 40gal. the flame is finally leaving ol blue alone. now the moonlight gouramis are going at it with one always being the aggressor. why can we all just get along. i swear they are practicing polities in that tank.

 

[slurpor]

In the past, I tried a couple times to keep multiple dwarf gouramies in a 10 gallon tank. I always got the same result: the weakest gourami was tormented by the others until death. Then the weakest of the remaining ones would be next. Finally, only the meanest gourami would survive. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't keep more than one gourami in any small tank. They may behave for a week or two, but in the end you'll have only one.

One should be fine in a 5g, with maybe an oto or something. Dwarf gouramis are rather lethargic, slow swimmers, and don't need a lot of space. Personally, I have never had a dwarf gourami live longer than 6 months without dying of a fungal infection, velvet, dropsy, etc. They seem to be very disease prone, and they tend to not recover from even the most minor injury. Bettas seem much hardier to me- I had a betta for a year with no diseases (then it jumped out and died!).