Dwarf Gourami Stats
Minimum Tank Size: 20 Gallons (75 Litres)
Care Level: Easy
Water Conditions: 6.0-7.5 pH and Soft to Moderately Hard
Temperature: 72-82 °F (22-27 °C)
Maximum Size: 3.5 inches (9 cm)
The dwarf gourami (Trichogaster lalius), also known as the powder blue dwarf gourami, is a small fish that remains one of the most popular gouramis available in the aquarium trade. It is native to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, though in recent years it has become established through releases and escapes in Australia, Columbia and the United States.
It primarily inhabits slow moving water, and can be found in canals, streams, ponds and lakes. It is nearly always found in heavily planted areas, and fleeting glimpses are often caught of dwarf gouramis surfacing for air among thick mats of aquatic plants.
They remain a small fish in the home aquarium and most won’t grow beyond 3 inches (7.5 cm), though some are known to reach lengths upwards of 3.5 inches (9 cm). It should be noted that there is a significant size difference between the sexes, and females will generally only reach 2 inches (5 cm). If a dwarf gourami is well cared for, it will live for an average 4 years in a home aquarium , though there are reports of them living as long as 6 years.
Housing
Like most gouramis, dwarf gouramis are a hardy fish that aren’t demanding when it comes to housing them. While a 10 gallon (45 litre) tank will likely be sufficient for a pair of dwarf gouramis, a 20 gallon (90 litre) is generally agreed upon to be a far better choice. The larger tank size provides more stable water parameters for the fish, and also requires less maintenance than a smaller tank. It’s also important to note that they should only be kept in pairs that contain one male and one female in smaller tanks. Males often fight one another, and in smaller tanks this can quickly become deadly for the fish.
Any tank containing dwarf gouramis should be heavily planted, and should include floating plants. This fish is notoriously shy, and a heavily planted tank with subdued lighting will help them to overcome their innate shyness. A significant number of hiding places should be also provided, since dwarf gouramis are known to become aggressive towards each other.
While they are often branded a community fish, they seem to do best when kept in species only tanks. The problem with keeping them in a community tank is two-fold. The first problem is that if their tank makes are overly active, they will spend the majority of their time in hiding and you will never see them. The other problem is that they are known to become very aggressive with colorful fish like bettas and guppies. If you do plan on keep them in a community tank, it is recommended that they are only kept in tanks that are at least 45 gallons (205 litres) so they can establish their own territories.
When choosing a filter for them, the key concern is to keep the current as low as possible in their tank. The best choices for tanks containing dwarf gouramis are either a high quality canister filter, or a hang on back filter that has had its output reduced or redirected. Generally speaking, hang on back filters are the better choice, since they are nearly as effective as canister filters, and much cheaper.
I would strongly recommend choosing an Aquaclear Power Filter
Feeding
The dwarf gourami is an omnivore, and feeds on algae, small invertebrates and plant matter in the wild. This diet should be replicated as closely as possible in the home aquarium, and this can be accomplished through offering them a highly quality flake food, along with feedings of live or frozen foods and vegetables. I personally use New Life Micro Wafers
Their favorite live foods are mosquito larvae (illegal to culture in some areas), blackworms, bloodworms and daphina. Their taste in frozen foods are very similar, and they happily accept frozen bloodworms, blackworms, daphnia and brine shrimp.
Breeding
Most dwarf gouramis are sold sexed, so generally it’s not hard to ensure that you have both a male and a female for breeding. But if you need to sex the fish, the male is nearly always larger than the female and will have much brighter colors. The males will also have an extended anal and dorsal fin, while the females will have shorter fins.
Dwarf gouarmis are bubble nest builders and breeding is relatively easy with this species. If you are serious about breeding, you will require a separate tank for breeding and the bottom of the tank should be kept as bare glass. It is also a good idea to add plants to the breeding tank, and Java Moss and floating Water sprite make excellent additions to the breeding tank.
In most cases a male and female will breed on their own, but if you need to trigger spawning then you can try by lowering the water level and increasing the temperature to 80-84 °F (26.5 °C) until they begin to spawn. If this still doesn’t trigger breeding, then you can try a large water change with slightly cooler water.
Like most other bubble nest builders the female and the male should always be separated from each other before breeding. The key is that when they are separated, they should still be kept where they can still see each other. This can be accomplished through tank dividers, or by placing two aquariums side by side.
After a week of conditioning in separate tanks where they are regularly feed high quality live, or frozen foods, the female should begin to plump up with eggs. About 3-4 days after the female first began to plump up with eggs, the male should be added to the tank. To avoid any problems, the male should be added either before or after the lights have been turned on.
After the male has been added to the tank, he will generally begin to construct the bubble nest. This is why it is important to add plants to the breeding tank, since the male will take bite size pieces of the plants to help build the bubble nest. Floating plants can also be important, since the male will often use those to anchor the nest while he constructs it.
Unlike many other Anatabids, the female is the one that initiates breeding. The female will guide the male under the nest and will initiate mating behaviour, which usually involves caressing the male with her feelers and mouthing the male along the side of his body.
The male will then wrap himself around the female and her eggs will be released as he fertilizes them. This may occur several times, and its a good idea to ensure that the female does not become injured during the mating. Most of the eggs will float up towards the nest, but many may sink to the bottom of the aquarium. A bare aquarium allows for the male to easily find the eggs, and he will pick up any of the eggs that he finds and add them to the nest.
The female should be removed at this point, and the male will begin to guard the nest zealously. The male can be kept in the tank until the fry are free-swimming, which generally happens in about 36 hours. The fry can be fed with infusoria and then after a few days they can be moved on to live foods such as baby brine shrimp or mirco-worms.
My dwarf gaurami has recently developed a wound right above his gill cover, behind his head. The scales have turned white and some have fallen off. Theres a reds spot in the middle, but I haven’t seen any bleeding into the water. I am wondering if they are overcrowded? The addition of 11 (one died of an unknown cause) baby mollies may be stressing them. The mother has always been shy towards other fish and dosent look too healthy, but her condition hasn’t gotten any worse or better. The gauramis are also very skittish. They used to chase each other over the plant, but the floating plant is in there and they should both have a territory. Should I bring the 5 gallon tank back to house the gaurami? Or move some of the baby mollies? I would hate to move any fish to a smaller tank, they seem so happy in the 36 gallon tank… But I think the gaurami may benefit from being away from the other fish. Idk. What do you think?
Hey Madison,
It sounds almost like an ulcer on your fish. Generally something like that could be caused by bacterial, which fish become sensitive too when they’re stressed. It could be over-crowding, or it could be water conditions. Have you tested your water lately?
I would definitely quarantine the sick gourami for now, so that the infection doesn’t spread. I’d also pick up some antibiotic food for it, which may help, and add a little bit of aquarium salt to the quarantine tank. Also be careful once it’s been removed not to cross contaminate anything by using it on both tanks.
Hope this helps.
Thanks! I’ll change the water soon, and bring my spare tank out.
Hi I just got one of these yesterday and sence I put it in it went into the massive plant in the tank and rarely comes out. The other fish in the tank are 8 or 9 guppies, 4 mollies, 2 platies,1 zebra danio, an angelfish, 2 bumblebee gobys, 2 Gold Chinese algae eaters, and a Paridice Gourami.
O yeah and I all so have a Freshwater Butterfly Fish
O yeah I all so have a Freshwater Butterfly Fish
never mind it died. 🙁
HI I just got 5 dwarf gouramis. I have a 20 gallon tank with an angel a catfish and a small Pleco. Looks like 2 are males 2 are females and the 5th gourami I can’t tell the sex. I’m not interested in breeding with them. Do you have any advice for me re this situation? Thanks. Val
If you’re just looking to prevent them breeding, you can remove the nest every time they build one. It’s pretty easy to prevent them from mating by just doing that whenever a nest shows up.
Hi, I was wondering how long it took for a fry to grow to a reproductive age?
I’ve heard they can reach sexual maturity as young as four months, but most of the time they’ll reach sexual maturity sometime between 6-12 months. A lot depends on their conditions, and they take longer to mature in colder water.
Thankyou Robert, that is really helpful.
I don’t know if I’m about to have problems, just got 4 male dwarf gouramis, any advice please?
Can you return and exchange them? Also, how large is your aquarium?
Hi.
I have a 125L planted aquarium. I currently have 4 zebra danios and 6 gold barbs from my old 40L tank.
I was thinking about getting some dwarf gourami as a kind of feature fish. Would this work?
I was also thinking of adding a few tetras but from reading the above will the gouramis be annoyed or stressed by that kind of community set up?
If gouramis aren’t the way to go, is there anything else of the same size and preferably colourful that I could get?
Thanks for your time, great website.
Gouramis are tough, and while many people recommend them as community fish, in my experience they don’t always work well. Especially with ones like Dwarf Gouramis or Moonlight Gouramis.
There are a few good choices though, and assuming the tank is mature, you could try something like a dwarf cichlid. I particularly like Bolivian rams myself. But if you want a gourami, you could try something like the pearl gourami, which is one of the better gouramis for a community tank.
Hey Rob do these guys go well with guppies and neon tetras in a (65-70 liter) 20ish Gallon Tank I would also like to know what’s a good hardy plant that can cover floors of the aquarium
They definitely don’t do well with guppies, but they might be alright with neon tetras – though they often don’t like colourful tankmates. It will be a bit of a gamble, and you will need to have a back up plan in place if they don’t get along.
My red gourami recently developed bump on one of his sides just behind side fin. I had not noticed it there before. Is this something to be concerned about? He doesn’t seem stressed and is not acting unusual. Seems to get along well with his mates and swims freely about my 60 gallon tank. I have floating plants where he hides sometimes but I do see him swim out and about especially during feeding.
Recommendations?
Is the bump the same colour as the fish, or is it a different colour?
Hi, we have male & female dwarf honey gourami along with 5 male guppies & 3 female along with male & female Molly. Our gourami’ keep to themselves & find feeding them difficult. Any suggestions?
When I have fish like that, I tend to do two feedings. I do one feeding at one side of the tank, and when all the fish are eating, I do another small feeding at the other side of the tank for the more shy fish. It also helps if you train them with a signal for when it’s dinner time. A light tapping will teach them that it’s feeding time and will usually draw them to the surface.
I have a male dwarf gormani in a 15 gallon setup with 3 cherry barbs, 2 black tetras, one Chinese algae eater, and one guppy with a decent amount of plants and decor. He tends to stay near the bottom of the tank and only comes up during feeding. Should I add floating plants to make him feel more comfortable?
Floating plants would work, but taller plants, and better hiding places would also help. Also, using plants to create separate parts of the tank would also help.
Thanks a ton! I plan on getting new plants anyways as well as maybe getting a larger aquarium.
Hi! My dwarf gourami has suddenly taken to hugging the bottom of the tank. We lost a couple of fish recently so now it’s only him, an African dwarf frog and one of the tank cleaning fish. He’s got a mark on his side which I have taken a picture of but can’t post here. I’m not sure if it’s a wound or something.
Can I show you a picture somehow?
I would be very careful with any fish exhibiting those symptoms. It sounds like you may have an outbreak of fish tuberculosis, which is transmissible to humans. It’s sometimes even called the fishkeepers disease. Did any of your fish develop bent spines? How large is the mark on its side?
Until you can be sure what’s wrong with your fish, always use gloves with your aquarium and do not expose any broken skin under any circumstances to the aquarium water. While it may not be fish TB, it does sound an awful lot like what you describe.