The Sweetest Gourami You Will Meet: Honey Gourami Care and Breeding

Everybody says what you say, that the honey gourami is the most peaceful fish ever. So I got a beautiful pair as a centerpiece fish in a small 10 gallon tank for my son. The male turned out to be a murdering psychopath and wiped out half of the smaller fish before I was able to get him out🤢
I had a similar experience with a female pearl gourami. Had her for years, suddenly she became a psycho.

I think that gouramis, like their cousins, the bettas have their own unique personalitys. So there is always a possibility of getting one that is very unlike the others🙂

I'm cycling a 10 gal right now, and plan to have one of these as the centerpiece. The tank has white sand (for the pygmy corys) and a black background. I'm interested to see how the honey gourami will look with that. I can also turn the background to the blue side, but I don't think that will look that great with yellow/orange. Thanks for the video (and all your other zillions I've watched!)

How many can I keep in a 51 gallon?

Very helpful video thank you! I have my first gourami right now and want to bring him out of his shell. How come female honey gourami seem impossible to find? Do you see a problem with mixing honey golden and honey red gouramis together?

Hi Prime Time. I’m considering adding Honey Gouramis to my 20G Long and am not sure how many I should add. Currently I only have four Cherry Barbs, a Clown Pleco, snails, shrimp, and plants in the tank. The Honey Gourami at my LFS are pretty young so I can’t tell if they’re male or female, but I assume it’s better to have more females than males? Any suggestions you have will be appreciated. Thank you!

I just realized you answered part of my question in this video. Still not sure what ratio of females vs males would be best if putting six in a 20G. Thanks for making such informative videos!

Will a group of honeys do well with schools of rummy nose, cardinals and lemon tetras?

You mentioned not keeping them with other gourami fish. Any concerns you can see with Pearl gouramis in a 75?

I want a gold honey guarami. Can I assume they are the same temperament as the honey? Also I have 10 Celestichthys Choprae which are pretty active, but I'm hoping that will be OK. Lastly I have 20 assorted color cherry shrimp. I don't mind if the fry get eaten, but will they mess with the adults?

Hey guys! Was wondering if you thought zebra or leopard danios would be ok tank mates in a 20 gallon long with one of the honey gouramis?

How would a group of these do in a 75 gal with a couple Electric Blue Acara? Bad idea?

Right now I have a 5 gallon with a single African dwarf frog. Been wanting to add a honey gourami for some time.

Thank you for all your advice I found very valuable

could I keep one honey gourami with 7 tetras and 5 guppies in a 25 Gallon?

I am in the process of setting up my first big tank, 42 gallon. I have watched many of your videos for research I greatly appreciate you guys. After watching this video now I want mostly honey gouramis but I don’t want them to breed would it be ok to get about 6 males and add some “clean up crew” fish after that?

Yay now I got some stocking options Ty!!

Thoughts on a pair vs 1 male + 2 females? Assuming the tank space is sufficient for either, which would the fish "prefer"? I know with live bearers you want more females, not sure if this is a similar situation

How small of a tank could you go with these if by themself.

Answered the questions I had about grouping. I had tried adding a betta to my 29H community but he was just too grumpy so now he gets to live permanently in my 10 gallon quarantine tank. I'm pulling out the spare tank as the new quarantine and am in the search for a new centre-piece with my harlequin rasboras and cherry barbs. A single honey gourami just may be at the top of my list for now. My other top consideration is a pair or trio of same-sex platys ( I'm not interested in any breeding).

Those are flame dwarf gourami's.....

definitely a no-go. blue gourami will never get along with a honey.

Anyone ever try Cherry Shrimp in with them?

could i keep 3 honey gouramis with 1 pearl gourami?

I have 2 orange and 2 blue and they never fight

I have a gorgeous red honey gourami in a beautiful 10 gallon tank with two African dwarf frogs and they are doing fantastic together so far! ❤ They enjoy having company with each other

Amazing fish!

I got 2 spawns of these, one of about 30 or so and a month later I got a 2nd spawn this time they had at least a hundred fry. I feed my fry hard boiled egg yolk works very well!

Thank you for your video, once again instructive and entertaining.

Can you put honey gouramis with chocolate gouramis
They both small

I'm just cycling my 90 l. If I decide on honey gourami would it be better to remove the spray bar on my filter. Also could I keep the different colour variety together

I have a honey gourami with 7 cardinal tetras in a 10 gallon and they get along nicely! Sometimes the gourami will hog the food, but I usually distract him with different food and feed the cardinals something else. The honey gourami is easily one of my favorite fish now.

yes,... from Bangladesh,.. we got a lot here

These guys are sunset thicklip gouramis. They are actually more peaceful than the actual honey gouramis lol. Honey gouramis can also display that aggression you see in other gourami species. Sunsets however, are the sweetest and definitely peaceful towards other tankmates. But they do display some dominance towards other sunsets from time to time however.

Just a word of caution based on my experience with a Honey Gourami. I have a 15 gallon planted tank with neon tetras, kjuli loaches, 3 cherry shrimp and 1 mystery snail. I decided to add 1 male Honey Gourami as a centerpiece based on all the recommendations as a peaceful and "sweet" fish. This is the first time in 30 years of experience with aquariums that I decided to take a fish back to the store. This juvenile honey gourami was super bully with the poor mystery snail, harassing the snail all day (except for when I was feeding the tank that the gourami got distracted eating) and then from one day to the next the honey gourami also hunted down all my cherry shrimp. Only one survived with half of the legs missing and hiding all day below a catappa leaf. I immediately returned the gourami back to the store without even asking for a refund. What a bad experience! And was a nightmare to capture the gourami with all the driftwood and plants I have in my tank. Totally regret getting this fish. Maybe you have better luck!

These are thick lip gourami

Is there a "Dwarf Honey Gourami?" My local LFS had some labeled as such. They looked similar to Rainbow dwarfs but the colors were lighter with a subtle hint of orange edging.

can you keep shrimp with them?

Can honey gouramis live with red cherry shrimp i want to get one for my tank with red cherry shrimp chili rasboras and soon kubotai rasboras will the honey gourami be happy my tank is stocked with plants and some drift wood will the honey gourami be happy and will it eat my shrimp because if it does im nit getting it please help me i live your videos❤

How about glo fish

I got me one cute one with a dark orange tail, but omg I witness how he bites off and nibbles of all the mini anubias nana’s in his tank; but not the buce

Could you just do 2 honey gourami's? Then 2 males or 2 females? I dont want any baby fish!

Can I keep pearl and honey gourami together in a 30 gallon

Thank you
I also love the pearls. I have a beautiful pair
So docile.
Should get a female or male

Have them no problem with beta

Can you keep harlequin rasboras with these?

Just added 4 Sunset Honey Gouramis to our heavily planted 90gal discus aquascape, which was our first gourami experience, and we are happy we did! I've always stayed away from these fish but they have been peaceful and their yellow color stands out against all the green. They share the tank with a big group of corys, rummynose, harlequins, rams and a few other small groups - all of whom work well together. They were shy at first and as noted in the video, some of the discus were a little nippy with them in the beginning but once that was sorted out, they have all calmed. These little guys occupy our whole tank, top to bottom, and are not picky eaters. They swim around similar to rams and are a lot of fun to watch them explore the whole tank. Very happy with these peaceful fish! Great video, thanks for the info.

Water parameters: 83F, pH 7.6, GH3

Im going to hopfully have a large school of red neon rainbows and a pair of these honey gouramis.

Can.you.keep.odessa.barbs.with.them

Thanks for the information. I got a few more based on your advice and it definitely helped with aggression issues. But new question. There are 4 total now, 2 bigger original males and 2 tiny new ones, one of the new ones looks like it could be female. Will that ratio be a problem? I.e. 3males 1female

I'd like to do an aquarium that is centered around honey gouramis (30g cube), but and really don't want them to breed since you can't sell/give them to fish stores in my country. I often read that there's a specific male to female ratio and I know it's more about male aggressivity towards females, but would you confirm that a full female honey gourami group can work as long as there's at least six of them ?

Hi love the videos