Gouramis 2 Barbs 0

[Tynabop]

Those monsters the gouramis (Puck, Goldmember, Migosh and Willow) did it again. They murdered another one of my barbs. Now I only have 3 barbs left how can those little monsters look so sweet and innocent, be such vicious killers? Pretty soon all that will be left are the gouramis, the corycats and the platty. The only reason why the darn platty is still around because he's as fat and long as the gouramis! Anyway I feel so sad for the barbs, those were my first fish, and now I only have 3 left

 

[Iggy]

Trade in your barbs for store credit maybe?

 

[Angelfish]

Or set up another tank so you can keep the barbs. I would deffinately suggest getting them out of the gourami tank.

 

[infant340]

get a tannk for either the gouramis or barbs og sell the gourmais to the lfs for credit and get some dwarf gouramis.

 

[Fish99]

How big is ur tank?...if itz small da gouramis like to fight to make more room..well i might be wrong so..ya....If itz small try gettin a bigger tank.....Good luck

 

[Brockway]

My blue gourami is a mean bastard. He killed the female I got with him a couple months ago, and my other female in another tank killed my male betta. There's not much you can do other than get the barbs outa there. The gouramis will kill them eventually. Especially if they are three spots (blue, opaline, pearl). I keep mine with my kenyis now... and he isn't at the bottom of the pecking order. Its like male kenyi, gourami, girl kenyis, and loaches do whatever they want.

 

[Iggy]

K, just for all you new betta/gourami owners out there....

NEVER MIX BETTAS WITH GOURAMIS.

Never, and by never I mean the never ever never, mix them. They are distant cousins, that are territorial and top-level fish that will fight till one dies or both from the damage.

I don't care if you think your Gourami is a nice friendly variety, trust me, the betta will try to take him down or vise versa.

Nough said?

 

[Brockway]

Yeah, I know that now... I've seen people with female gouramis and bettas before, so I thought they would be ok. Then I woke up to find my bettas fins all torn up. It was either the gourami or the rosy red minnows... doubt it was the minnows. I put him in a breeder net with some stress coat to heal, but he died.

 

[Lotus]

I sometimes wonder how they keep the gouramis in the pet store all together or with other fish. They are mean fish, although very beautiful. One per tank is all I will ever get. I don't think I would put a betta in a community tank, it's too risky. While some people seem to be able to have more than one gourami or a betta in a community tank, I have heard too many stories of disaster to "experiment" with it.

 

[Iggy]

Hey, you can put gourami and betta in a divided tank... just make sure they cannot jump over it!

Yes, my opinion is well known about betta splendin's (common) as comminity fish (NO!) but I am not an expert on Gourami. I have a cinamon dwarf gourami I just inherited from another betta breeder. I only know a little bit about them, so I am keeping him divided until I know if he can go in a community tank or if I want to make a gourami only tank.

 

[Brockway]

You can crowd gouramis sort of like the african cichlids. They have so many targets, they sort of give up chases quickly (they lose them) I really like my blue gourami (he's huge! ~4" and pretty, and he eats snails!) but gouramis just don't seem to like each other... I'm certain that if I attempted to breed him, he would kill the female. When I had him with a girl when I started out, they were in a heavily planted 10 together, and he still got her... Plus I've never seen him even attempt to build a bubble nest (although the filters would break it up anyways)