Gouramis: solo, pairs, or harem?

[greedythief]

i want a pearl gourami for my 29 gallon community with:

4 glowlight tetras
6 neon tetras
2 otocinclus
2 bolivian rams

Heavily planted

which is very roughly 22 inches of fish atm.

a solo pearl gourami would top off the stocking nicely

BUT then i was thinking.. the solo male would have no purpose in life without a lady friend.

so do i push the stocking limit with a pair

or is solo fine?

[Shootemz]

if i were you, i wouldn't get any gouriami's for that tank upp the schools on the tetras. i had a gouriami in the tank with small tetras and they would hide. If you were to get a gouriami, for that small of a tank, i would only put one. they are highly territorial, and are not recomended to have more that 2 in maybe a highly planted 50 g.

[Shootemz]

i want a pearl gourami for my 29 gallon community with:

4 glowlight tetras
6 neon tetras
2 otocinclus
2 bolivian rams

Heavily planted

which is very roughly 22 inches of fish atm.

a solo pearl gourami would top off the stocking nicely

BUT then i was thinking.. the solo male would have no purpose in life without a lady friend.

so do i push the stocking limit with a pair

or is solo fine?

also, in america it is highly uncommon to get a female gouriami, they generally only import the males, and they can be hard to sex.

[Brhino]

also, in america it is highly uncommon to get a female gouriami, they generally only import the males, and they can be hard to sex.

That's true for dwarf gouramis. Not so much for Pearl gouramis, and blue/gold/opalines. They're sexable by the size and shape of the dorsal fin, and it's pretty common to find both genders.

To the OP: I would get a single fish. You don't want to do a pair, and while 1M/2-3F is supposed to work I don't think a 29g would be enough room. I have a trio of female pearl gouramis in my 75g and it works okay, but they still chase each other around from time to time so it's good that there's enough space.

[dizzydezzy]

+1 to the above - a pair will not work due to aggression, and your tank would be too cramped for a harem to get along well...