# Dwarf Gouramis Beware!



## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

So after searching for appropriate fish for planted tanks I decided to try some Dwarf Gouramis. I am seriously regretting this descision! I wish someone had warned about the fact that they like to eat and rip out plants! I hadn't seen anyone mention this. I am not sure if it is just the plants I have but they like to rip up and eat :icon_evil the Dwarf Hairgrass, Bacopa, Rotala wallichii, and Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis), Hygrophila corymbosa stricta (Compacta). The only plants they seem to leave alone is a Echinodorus argentinensis (Argentine Sword) and Java Fern. I want to get rid of them but the store won't take the back and I feel bad euthanizing them. I fixed my tank yesterday and they already made a new mess for me to fix by this afternoon. This tank is new and I am never going to get anything established when it is being ripped up and chewed up every day! Not sure why the font is changing as I type sorry for this. :icon_roll:icon_excl


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## LB79 (Nov 18, 2011)

Get a net breeder. Most fish stores have them. You can keep the gouramis in there until you decide what to do with them.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Hmm.... In the 5 years I had my dwarf, it never once touched the plants, and I have many of the ones you have listed, have you tried giving algae tabs or flake? they will usually go for plants if they are not getting enough vegi in their diet.


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## StygianSteel (Apr 2, 2010)

Never had this problem when I had one. I have heard of them adding some plant bits to their bubble nests, but mine never did. Never bothered any plant. Loved my Dwarf Gourami until he passed.


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## epiphany (Oct 8, 2011)

I have two dwarfs and have never seen either of them touch any of my plants. Almost sounds like their diet is lacking. As asked up there what do you feed them and how mcuh?


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Um, no offence, but are you sure you got Dwarf Gouramis?


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## greenfish (Jul 7, 2004)

Mine loves to eat Staurogene!


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## keilatan (Jan 22, 2011)

Advertise them on Craigslist if the store won't take them back.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

So after just replanting a Bacopia stem that I already replanted last night.... Yup I'm sure they are dwarf Gouramis, two powder blue and one regular ( I got 2 regulars, but one died in a couple days after getting it). I haven't had them very long but they have been eating algae wafers, a little bit of flakes and I bought a multi pack of frozen food that has 4 different selections. I've been giving them little chunks off each selection each evening. They sure do like to eat! I was thinking of those in tank breeders, I'll need 3 and I suppose that will be the only thing to do is offer them on Craigslist. I think I'll have to add a warning that they are the first ever Gourami that like to tear apart plants!! They haven't been making bubble nests just constantly nibbling on the plants I find half eaten leaves floating and chunks of plants especially Hairgrass, with roots still attached. It is very saddening, I thought I was really going to enjoy these guys!


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## Rich Conley (Jun 10, 2008)

I've got a pearl gourami that tears up my dwarf baby tears. I think hes just looking for food in them, as he doesn't eat them.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

Here's a pic of them...


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kh0A9M-je9M/TyFvRnU8eDI/AAAAAAAAOe8/ZGBO2gw77_8/s288/100_0537.JPG

Let me know which one worked


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## Rainer (Jan 30, 2011)

greenfish said:


> mine loves to eat staurogyne!


+1.


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## Tenor1 (Jan 15, 2012)

We've kept gouramis for about 50 years and I've seen this many times. Usually they pick at the plants to build a bubble nest for breading. You may not even have a female for the male to "think" he needs to do it.

Try lowering the temp in the tank. We would raise the water temp when we wanted to induce breeding. The two things that can trigger the breeding instinct in fish is a big water change or raising the temperature. It's sort of like a change of season.


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## forester (Mar 12, 2010)

had a powder blue one that use to pick at my rotala but tbh honest he almost just looked liked he was suckin the leaves in his mouth just to taste them lol , never did much damage but i did end up adoptin him out to a friends tank ^^


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

Thanks for the info about lowering the temp. I did do a 40% water change and the temp. was at 80 F That did seem right before the evening of heaviest destruction that I have seen. I thought they were just getting comfortable. What temp. do you recommend? I also have Neon Tetras in there.

It seems the worst of the three is one of the powder blue ones here too! At first I thought he was just sucking algae off then I started seeing the tops of the Rotala floating around in the tank and the plant has become much shorter.


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## Jaguar (Oct 13, 2011)

I've had 2 in my community tank for 6 months, and they munch at the plants every once in a while, but have never actually destroyed or uprooted anything. Interesting.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

So I've been trying to give them algae wafers in the morning. I originally bought them for my shrimp but the Gouramis seem to love them. Like I had said before this is a new tank so I was doing lots of large water changes and trying to only feed once a day to keep the nitrite level below .25 ppm. Without all the water changes, giving them extra algae wafers and getting the temp. a little lower is helping to keep them from destroying everything. I'll give them some time before I decide to get rid of them.


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## epiphany (Oct 8, 2011)

Good to hear, hopefully they become nice and peaceful for the plants soon. Mine also love algae tabs that I drop in for my shrimp.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

I am still finding huge chunks of plants in the tank  This really stinks, I really like the Gouramis. Does any one think Pearl Gouramis would be any different?


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## KaylNeko (Dec 20, 2011)

You'll probably have the same likelihood of running into the problem--some do, some don't. I never ran across it when researching the fish, only when I actually put in a search command for pearl gouramis with plants. 

I have 3 in QT right now waiting to join the main tank--they're not touching the hornwort in there with them, so hopefully, they'll leave the rest alone. One of the tips I read recently was to give them something like cucumber at the top of their tank to distract them...it's worked for several folks I've read about, since Pearls are very much top dwellers. Not so sure about the Dwarfs, though. That sucks, though.  Uncooperative fish.


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## EnigmaticGuppy92 (Jan 31, 2012)

i have 6 gourami, 2 opaline 2 kissing and 2 golden never seen them touch any of my plants at all ahah u must just be unlucky do u have alot of suface agitation in the tank??


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## Elliot (Oct 3, 2010)

I've got 1 powder blue in a 10 gal with plants. He only picks the algae off them occasionally. You really should not be having problems with them. I wonder if having more than one Gourami could be your problem. Not sure, but just throwing it out there.


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## EnigmaticGuppy92 (Jan 31, 2012)

i have six and thier fine with no problem just a strange fish maybe ahah


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

It's been a while since I posted this, but thought I'd update. I'm down to one Powder Blue Gourami at this point. I just lost the other one a few weeks ago. The eating of the plants has settled down. He just seems to nibble the Bacopia a little, mostly picking algae off stuff. Although he did a number on my microsword that had been doing quite well until he mowed it down. They did build bubble nests(using half of my dwarf hairgrass  ) at one point but I have airstones in the corners that they built them, that come on at night when the lights shut off. So the nests got ruined every night that they built them and I think they finally gave up. So for some reason the Gourami loved to eat that Rotala. Literally ate both clumps I had down to little stems. He would even snap the stems off. At one point they ate my Hygrophylia almost to nothing but that one grows pretty quick for me and I was able to cut the tips of the remaining plants and re root them.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

EnigmaticGuppy92 said:


> i have 6 gourami, 2 opaline 2 kissing and 2 golden never seen them touch any of my plants at all ahah u must just be unlucky do u have alot of suface agitation in the tank??


Yes I use HOB Power filters...


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## Cynical Fish Guy (Feb 19, 2012)

Tenor1 said:


> We've kept gouramis for about 50 years and I've seen this many times. Usually they pick at the plants to build a bubble nest for breading. You may not even have a female for the male to "think" he needs to do it.
> 
> Try lowering the temp in the tank. We would raise the water temp when we wanted to induce breeding. The two things that can trigger the breeding instinct in fish is a big water change or raising the temperature. It's sort of like a change of season.


Thank you, I was wondering what made my fish horny. I changed their water and two days later I have 2 big bubble nests with plant matter, and I'm wondering why in the world I have 2 horny gouramis. I was thinking it was the blood worm diet....


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## Cynical Fish Guy (Feb 19, 2012)

I played with water temp too...oops my bad. None of the others (fish/inverts) appear horny though... maybe my ghost shrimp....


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## Cynical Fish Guy (Feb 19, 2012)

I've had my fish less than 2 weeks (the gouramis). The rest I've had about 1 yr. Already, the gouramis want to mate, but their colors are AMAZING!!!


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

I have a stauro carpet starting up and my dwarf gourami does not mess with it.


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## ADJAquariums (Jul 5, 2012)

Wow i never ever had an issue with them eating plants, i would have recomended them to you as a good community fish for a planted tank


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## Cynical Fish Guy (Feb 19, 2012)

I HAVE THIS ISSUE KIND OF! They (my 2 gouramis) tug hard at exposed roots, and algae, sometimes uprooting my wisteria. They will nibble at floating leaves too. They mostly eat algae, unless its feeding time and their are flakes, pellets, etc. in the water to feed upon. These fish are colorful, freshwater, eating machines, and pooping machines.

Let the plants float a bit. The tank will still get cycled... and these fish don't belong ina non-cycled tank. I suggest adding more gravel/dirt, and place a lil more weight around the roots to help them from being uprooted.

BTW, my large Mystery Snail, uproots more plants, running around, than do my gouramis! My snail barrel rools over plants, looking for dead leaves, but leaving the green stuff alone. He has uprooted Java Fern many a time (but I don't mind free floating Java Fern once in a while!)


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

flutterbug said:


> https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kh0A9M-je9M/TyFvRnU8eDI/AAAAAAAAOe8/ZGBO2gw77_8/s288/100_0537.JPG
> 
> Let me know which one worked


They both worked.

The blue one on the outside looks like it may be a female. 

Perhaps some blanched spinach would help distract them from your plants.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

My remaining Blue Dwarf is at it again! I definiteley think Tenor hit it right on the money back in the first thread. I raised the heat a couple degrees recently trying to keep my Rams healthy and now he keeps trying to build bubble nests!


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

flutterbug said:


> I raised the heat a couple degrees recently trying to keep my Rams healthy and now he keeps trying to build bubble nests!


What is wrong with him building a nest? That is what he is suppose to do.


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

He is ripping the plants out by the roots and tearing leaves off my Hygros, Lilies and Ludwigia. It makes a mess and all gets stuck on the filter intakes. If I knew Dwarf Gouramis liked to make a mess of the tank I probably would have steered clear. I have 4 kids, one is a 7 month old so it isn't easy to find time to mess with replanting plantsevery day. They can't establish themselves if they keep getting pulled up. So I just want to share my experience so others can make informed decisions when planning on which fish to stock in their tanks.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I know some dgs will pick apart plants to use them in bubble nests...


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

flutterbug said:


> He is ripping the plants out by the roots and tearing leaves off my Hygros, Lilies and Ludwigia.


I have seen a few planted tanks with Gouramis. I read that they are vegetarians thus I didn't get 1. Have you tried tossing some cucumber or steamed peas in the tank?


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## flutterbug (Jan 8, 2012)

I am pretty sure the problem is the raised temp. he wasn't doing it for a long time. I have GBRs and I decided to up the temp a couple degrees shortly after a water change and accidentally had my night time air stones turned completely off. Next thing I knew he had a giant bubble nest filled with ripped up DHG, Ludwigia, Dwarf Lily leaves, etc. and keeps trying to fix it every morning after the airstones mess it up on him. I think he has given up now. I took a week.


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## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

I used to have a little sparkling gourami, and s/he never bothered the plants, but s/he might just have been too small to eat them. It was just Java fern, swordplants, and Java moss. I did see it playing in the Java moss and poking at it, but not eating it, just looking for bugs I guess.


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## wheatiesl337 (Mar 30, 2011)

I had a gourami that pulverized all my stems and would constantly pull up micro-sword. It would leave crypts and ferns alone. I didn't keep my water particularly warm, and I kept him well fed, including fresh cucumber etc.

I still don't know why people recommend gouramis for community tanks. They tend to be aggressive, and if you get one that is, not really anything that can be done other than separating it from other fish. Terrible community fish and potentially destructive to plants.


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## bluestems (Feb 7, 2012)

wheatiesl337 said:


> I still don't know why people recommend gouramis for community tanks. They tend to be aggressive, and if you get one that is, not really anything that can be done other than separating it from other fish. Terrible community fish and potentially destructive to plants.


Sorry to hear you and some others have had such bad experiences with gouramis. My experience was much different... I had seven gouramis (yellow, blue and a pearl) in a 75g planted aquarium with a school of harlequin rasboras, khuli loaches & a betta with no problems. I loved watching them slowly cruise the tank, meandering in and out of the plants. They were very relaxing to watch, would come over to see me when I fed them and didn't chase or bother the other fish. 

I remember keeping the tank at 78F. Maybe that did make a difference.


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