Gouramis

[justyn725]

I was told by a pet store that having two dwarf gourami's in a 20g tank would be a bad idea? I couldnt find any information in a book, so is that true? Just wondering if my pet store people know what they're talking about or just make stuff up.

[KingFisher]

IMO it is a definite no-no, if they are both males. Unfortunately, most shops do not sell the females because they are not as colorful as the males. Even in my heavily planted 55g, my two males would occasionally fight. I wouldn't recommend two males in anything smaller.

[C-Dub]

Although I keep larger gourami I have to agree, which surprises me b/c the LFS will usually sell you any fish you want without even asking any questions. Male Gourami are very territorial and the last thing you want is to have stressed or unhappy fish, it defeats the purpose. Like King said it would be much more feasible in a larger very well planted tank so they can establish territories and not have a straight line of sight at each other. If you could get your hands on some females it's a different story but from what I understand female dwarfs are less appealing and the LFS's seem to not even sell them. (shows what they know)

[justyn725]

What surprises me is that it is Petco...I never thought they would know much, being a big box pet store and all...

[Jacko]

Definitly only put one in, in anything under a 4 foot tank I'd only keep one. In a 4 ft tank there is the space for 2 2' territories which is pretty much all they seem to take.

It completely depends with the employee, alot of times you get people that just really don't want to be there and don't have any idea about fish, just in it because they could get the job. Then you have the people that actually know things about fish and from what I've seen, they don't last long in the big chain stores, they find a place where their skills are better appreciated around here.

[justyn725]

the problem is that they ran ever small pet store out of business within a pretty good radius.

[C-Dub]

Yeah I agree, sometimes I run into a guy at one of my LFS's, and I listen to everything he says because he is a fish genious . But that's at a real nice legit FISH ONLY store, and the guys advice is more appreciated and i'm sure he is paid more than a place like petco could pay. I hate to see when a place like that kills all the local places that actually care