10 Gallon Honey Gourami Stocking

[Jackk]

Hi, my question is related to honey gouramis. I’ve gotten mixed messaging about stocking and felt I should come here to ask. I do already have a powder blue dwarf gourami in my 29 gallon so I have some experience with gouramis for about a year and half now. 
 

I’ve set up a heavily planted 10 gallon tank. Java ferns, Anubias, Buce, Water lettuce, Java moss, and Marimo moss balls. I do not have a large cave like my 29 gallon though so I’m potentially worried about line of sight. I’ve read that honey gouramis are a lot more peaceful than their dwarf counterparts. That they can work in groups or solo. I’m wondering how many honey gouramis can be in a 10 gallon? One fish store told me 8-9 with lots of filtration. I thought that was pretty absurd and was way too many. Another fish store told me 2. I asked about male/female and they told me it’s more about territory/personality.

 

I’m perfectly alright with getting a solo honey gourami. If 2 would work thought that would be cool too. Can 2 males work? Can 1 male/1 female? Will the male/female create too much aggression with other fish in the tank in regards to territory and breeding ? Will 2 males fight too much?  
 

Thank you.

[ShreyanDev]

I have 2 male honey gouramis in a 20 gallon tank and they do occationally fight but they fight only for 2-5 minutes and dont really hurt each other. But as yours is a smaller tank I would say go with 1 male and 1 female and do have a spare tank ready. Just 1 Male or female would be best with some other small fish but you could do 1 male and 1 female if you have a good filter and do weekly water changes

[Nik_n]

I have some experience with keeping dwarf gouramis and blue gourmais. I always kept them in pair, male/female. My blue gourmais spawned and the fry is tanking forever to grow. 

I would suggest going with 2 gouramis, male and female, especially if you want to add more top devilling fish later on. If you want to make it a species only or just have some corries at the bottom, you could get away with 3 (male/two female). 

In my experience, if kept in good condition and fed well, these fish will spawn. When they spawn the male makes a bubble nest and does a little dance around the female to get her to drop the eggs, which he then carries to his bubble nest, just as bettas do.

If you decide to keep a species only tank expect breeding to happen. The fry won't survive long in the main tank so you would need to set up another tank if you want to raise the fry. Do more research on that when the time is right. Just be prepared that you might get some breeding. 

In order to avoid any aggression make sure you have floating plants as well as some driftwood a female can hide behind.