Pearl Gourami with Honey Gourami

[macdaddy36]

Would 3 pearl gourami work with 4 honey gourami in a 55 gallon?

[Lennie]

I dont have pearls but my golds didn't work with honey gourami after some time in a 42g custom made tank. Problem arising from the gold gouramis' side of course.

Honeys are way too nice. Anything that decides to not like them can bully them I think. Pearls are known to be nice overall but they are much bigger than honeys in size. If they decide to bully these angelic creatures, they can easily do it I think.

If you ask me, I would not keep them together. I gave it a try in my case because I have plenty of options to make it work if it fails and it did.

[macdaddy36]

I might still try, because I heard pearl gouramis are a lot more peaceful than gold, and if it doesn't work I can put them right back into the 20 where they live now.

Thanks.

[Lennie]

On 11/30/2023 at 9:53 PM, macdaddy36 said:

I might still try, because I heard pearl gouramis are a lot more peaceful than gold, and if it doesn't work I can put them right back into the 20 where they live now.

Thanks.

 Just make sure what you heard are long time experience based and coming from sources you trust. In this specific case, I would advice looking for experiences regarding keeping honeys and pearls together, but not their unique peaceful behavior in a community tank.

One species being nice overall in a community tank does not mean it will be peaceful versus everything. Labyrinth fish usually are not a fan of each other. My rams were peaceful versus everything even when other fish were literally ignoring their territory, but they killed the other ram in the tank even tho she was never close to them. My female betta sorority worked for a long time but when the number dropped to three, they started being quite aggressive versus each other, however I easily keep those ladies in separate community tanks rn. My gold gouramis lived together with the honey gourami for months, but honey gourami ended up being bullied one day when the bigger gouramis reached sexual maturity. The list goes like that.

I hope you get my point. Usually as juveniles it is less likely to observe issues. When they reach sexual maturity, stuff may go wrong between the fish. A peaceful community fish does not exactly mean they will be peaceful versus their own kind in a tank.

 

You can surely try if you have back up plan. If you have a 29g and 55g, and can easily rehome honeys to 29g if your attempt fails, then I see no reason why not to try. Without a back up plan, I wouldn't try.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Lennie