Pearl or Thick-Lipped Gourami?

Betta's, Gouramis etc
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Sixo
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Hi all,

I'm looking at getting a peaceful, decent-sized Gourami to occupy the top of my community tank. From what I've been reading online Pearl & Thick-lipped gouramis seem to be decent options.

So I'm wondering who's kept them? I don't have the tank size for a group so wondered if either of them are suitable to maybe keep a single specimen or pair? Should I avoid males etc?

Any thoughts?
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Vale!
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Yes - I have Pearls, 3f +1m.

The male spends much of his waking hours chasing tail, as it were. If it's a case of having two, then two females must be favourite. If it were a m/f pair then the female would likely be pestered ouf of existence ; if 2 males, then ... probable armageddon!

I don't know how a single male would behave in a community. My Pearls and the rest of their tankmates combined take no notice of each other whatsoever.
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VikingMummy2015
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I loved my pearls (had 1m, 2f in my previous 240L). The male was by himself for a couple of months before I added the girls and he was my favourite fish; coloured up well, didn’t see any issues with other tankmates. He coloured up further once the girls were added!
240L Fluval Roma with Oase 600 Biomaster: 1 German red bristlenose, 4 male cherry barbs, 6 standard rummynose, 3 golden rummynose tetra, 9 emperor tetra, 14 cardinal tetra, 2 hengeli rasbora, 3 nerite snails, 1 adult Sulawesi snail and multiple juveniles continually appearing.

Parameters: gH2, kH1, pH7.4 (tap).
Fish fiend since October 2017.
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Sixo
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Sounds like female pearls are the way to go.

Any votes for the thick lipped?
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plankton
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Thick-lipped (if you can find them, they are often banded gourami wrongly labelled) are cool, they are even more docile (unlike the banded) than pearls and you should be able to keep a pair in a 3'+ tank, if not a trio.
They are slightly smaller than pearls as well.
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Lee_k
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Another for pearls here, I've got 4 in my discus tank - 3 female and a male - never seen any chasing etc seem quite peaceful and 99% of the time all together.

Think I've had mine around 14-15month maybe a little longer

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Gingerlove05
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I had thick lipped gourami, mistakenly bought as honeys/red honeys, they went a bronze/copper colour as they got older. Still stayed pretty peaceful for the most part, occasionally spatting with each other.
To the tune of “the saints go marching in”:
Oh fluffy sheep! Oh fluffy sheep! Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful, they’re white Welsh and fluffy! Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful!
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plankton
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Gingerlove05 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:45 pm I had thick lipped gourami, mistakenly bought as honeys/red honeys, they went a bronze/copper colour as they got older. Still stayed pretty peaceful for the most part, occasionally spatting with each other.
Wasn't yours a dwarf/thick-lipped hybrid Iain? ;)
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Gingerlove05
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plankton wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 17:08 pm
Gingerlove05 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:45 pm I had thick lipped gourami, mistakenly bought as honeys/red honeys, they went a bronze/copper colour as they got older. Still stayed pretty peaceful for the most part, occasionally spatting with each other.
Wasn't yours a dwarf/thick-lipped hybrid Iain? ;)
Quite possibly Ian, we only established they weren’t honeys and more likely thick lipped than anything else, not sure if there was any dwarf in them so they could have been hybrids :)
To the tune of “the saints go marching in”:
Oh fluffy sheep! Oh fluffy sheep! Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful, they’re white Welsh and fluffy! Oh fluffy sheep are wonderful!
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Sixo
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MA seems to be the only place I've ever seen the Thick-lipped, may go for a nosey to get a better look at their colours of they have them in.

Are pearls easy to sex when they're small?
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