[Iwagumist]

I have a heavily planted 30 gallon jungle aquascape that I am finally ready to finish up stocking-wise with 3 Honey Gouramis. My lfs doesn't carry females (from what I understand, they are hard to find) and I am just wondering, given this is my first time keeping a Gourami species if three males could do fine together and still live happily without the girls :grin2:. They are the most peaceful species of Gourami so this should work out right?

Any advice, experiences or tips are welcome :laugh2:!

 

[Diana]

Gouramis are not social fish.
They do not pair bond, or form any similar attachment between male and female.
Males are solitary, and territorial.

I would not put 3 male Anabatoids in a tank that is not large enough for them to each have a clearly defined territory.
For Honey Gouramis, they are smaller, and among the more peaceful of Gouramis, so something about 12-18" square per fish might be OK. Say, a foot of swimming space and 6" of driftwood and plants to divide the territories. Perhaps a 4' long tank would work.

 

[jaliberti]

So you want 3 Gourami ... your LFS doesn't carry females ... wondering if three males are compatible without females ...

3 males would actually be MORE compatible without females than with mixed sexes.

3 females would work best.

2 males + 1 female or even 1 male + 2 females is asking for much squabbling and chasing. As soon as you introduce the opportunity for procreation you're doomed.

If you've got your heart set on 3 Gourami I'd say stay away from any of the Trichogaster, go with 3 female Trichopodus leerii. Females are readily available at most LFS and adults are easy to sex.

 

[n25philly]

3 male honey gouramis in a 30 is fine. I have 4 honey's in my 29, 2 males and 2 females. Both males are showing breeding colors and building bubble nests and there is zero aggression. Honey gouramis do better in groups and you won't see natural behaviour out of them unless you have a group of 4-6 at minimum. With no females around I don't see why there would be any aggression at all in a tank that size.

 

[pwu_1]

I have 8 in my 46 bow front. No idea if they are male or female but they don't seem to be territorial or aggressive at all. Sometimes one will chase another one out of a space but it's more like a bluff charge and the other one swims away. No chasing or anything. Sometimes they'll even pair up and swim together or line up and follow each other around for a bit.
I don't think you'll have problems with 3 in a 30 gallon tank. As long as you are sure they are real honey dwarf gourami(trichogaster chuna)

 

[Nordic]

You could try dwarf gouramis, I Had a male with 2 females in a 25. They used to have threesomes under the bubble nest.

 

[Ritobasu]

I have 1 male and 2 female honeys, and other than the occasional chasing by the male they get along very well. Never saw anything go beyond bluff charges, unlike a horrible experience with a 1M:2F trio of Pearls where the male killed his girls while I was away for a few days.

 

[AWolf]

I bred Honey Gouramis for years and made some money on the side selling to the LFS, back when LFS were 'Mom and Pop' shops. I've had many together...all different ages, in 10 gallon tanks, up to 55g. It is hit or miss. They mostly got along fine, but there would be times when I had to pull one out of the tank because of constant fighting. I'd have loads of plants, and keep an eye on them. I haven't owned Honeys in years, and don't know if the newer strains have gotten more, or less aggressive. Today I have Flame, Powder Blue and Neon Blues. They are all quite territorial, and they beat on each other all the time unless separated or in 55g or larger tanks.

P.S. They can be shy, so it may take a few weeks before fighting breaks out. So just because they don't fight for the first couple of weeks, doesn't mean down the road they won't start. Just like cichlids in that respect.

 

[Grah the great]

Depends...how much cover do you have in the tank? I have 5 paradise fish (which are supposed to be much more aggressive than honeys), at least 3 of which are males, in a 20 long with a substantial amount of plants, and they get along fine with only a little arguing (they also seldom bother the danios and platies they share the tank with...I have found that fish much smaller than a zebra danio are occasionally predated by the PF's, so the danios are the smallest fish in the tank).

 

[jaliberti]

... a 1M:2F trio of Pearls where the male killed his girls while I was away for a few days.

Can you provide more details on this? Tank size, contents of tank, non/gravid females?

I haven't bred Pearls but have had them, and have bred several other Gourami species. It would seem counterproductive for him to kill them. 1 female killing the other female okay I could see. In a large enough tank (>20Long) with suitable nesting/hiding areas and gravid female(s) you should have returned home to a tank full of fry instead of 2 dead fish.

 

[Ritobasu]

Can you provide more details on this? Tank size, contents of tank, non/gravid females?

I haven't bred Pearls but have had them, and have bred several other Gourami species. It would seem counterproductive for him to kill them. 1 female killing the other female okay I could see. In a large enough tank (>20Long) with suitable nesting/hiding areas and gravid female(s) you should have returned home to a tank full of fry instead of 2 dead fish.

They were in a quarantine 29g tank, and I'm almost sure the male killed them. The two girls were introduced to the tank a few weeks after the male, and he would take turns relentlessly chasing them across the tank and nipping their fins. This went on for two weeks, just when I thought he was finally toning down his aggression. I'm not sure if the females were gravid, but they were certainly more plump than the male. I never saw the male attempt to make a bubblenest either for breeding

Eventually, I think one of the girls succumbed to constant stress and died. The male then turns his attention to the remaining female and she died a day or two later. The female that died first was certainly dead for a while, because she smelled awful and was starting to decompose at the surface of the tank. The other female's corpse looked more fresh

I tested the water parameters thinking there was something off, but ammonia and nitrites were at 0, nitrates at the normal 20ppm in quarantine. Thank god there wasn't a serious ammonia spike that also killed the male too, but I had enough of his behavior and returned him to the store. The funny thing is, he was the bullied male of the shoal at the LFS and it turned out he was a murderer himself.

Gouramis are always a gamble when it comes to keeping more than 1, just some species have a higher chance of getting along better than others. That's why I didn't get any more Pearls and tried Honeys, and there's a lot more real estate for 3 Honey Gouramis to share in a 40 breeder