1 Dwarf Gouramis with other fish

[Luniyn]

Once my tank cycles I'm looking to get a total of 5 red-eyed tetras, 3 cory cats, and 1 other type of fish. I originally was thinking about 5 neon tetras, but that is really going to push my limit on my already close to full 20 Gal. I stumbled across a Dwarf Gourami in the pet store the other day and for the first time stopped to take a closer look. Under the normal light they look rather plain from certain angles. But all of a sudden he turned and I saw the beauty of it's iridescent body! The problem is at a 3" adult size, getting 2 would over stock my tank as badly as the neon tetras would. So my question is would a single Dwarf Gourami (probably would be the blue one) be happy without any others of it's kind in the tank?

 

[atmmachine816]

You can do something with buyying three I think and have a pair, two females and a male I think, but it would be best just to get one male, best to understock then overstock.

 

[bbfeckawitts]

It would be fine to get only one. My brother has 2 in a ten gallon with 3 tetras (about 2 inches each).
Brianna

 

[Luniyn]

Thanks! I think one star of the tank would look nice too. Just hope he doesn't get lonely and start causing trouble.

 

[atmmachine816]

He won't ge lonely, and as long as it's a dwarf it shouldn't cause trouble.

 

[Luniyn]

Sounds like a plan then. Now to just find that perfect star for the tank... man is he going to be spoiled!

 

[vin]

Sounds an awful lot like my set up....We have one dwarf and he is the star of the tank. Not a problem with him and the others......I say DO IT!!

 

[Luniyn]

It's worked quite well since I added him to my tank. The only thing is he is a bit pushy about eating, especially when it comes to the shrimp pellets I drop for the Cory Cats. He will wait to see where they hover over a pellet so he knows where they are. Then he will come over and start to take bites out of the pellet and scare off the Cory Cat eating there. I've since taken to dropping the pellets in 2 areas in the tank and the Cory's now work as a team to get their fair share. While 2 hover in one area making the DG think all the pellets are there, the 3rd goes off and eats his fill in the other spot. Then he will come in and take the place of one of the 2 distractors while the 3rd moves out to get his share, etc. Then the tetras get into the game and make dives through the plants to try and get a pellet to play "foodball" with. The Dwarf Gourami will usually chase them off, but they've adapted to that too. One makes the dive to get the DG's attention and then another will dive in for the pellet. It can be quite entertaining to watch everyone eat ;D.

 

[vin]

Mine tends to do that too. He's a bully when it comes to food. I feed the cories just before the timer turns the light off for the night. That way the gourami has a hard time finding the pellets and the cories can eat with relative peace. Otherwise as you said the tetras and the gourami and the swords chase them away. Though it is pretty funny to see the gourami occasionally get too close to one of the barbs on the cories and watch him "jump" when he gets spiked!

 

[Bonochick]

Sounds like it will be a nice tank! Red eye tetras are so cool.