Sparkling Gourami - Necessity For Sexing Before Choosing A Pair / Small Group?

Ooooh, are you considering getting some?

Very tempting. LFS is confident they can sex them, so a pair might well be an option. Mr FCMF even said he wouldn't mind the fact they make a noise, if it kept me quiet about wanting an additional tank, as the former would at least be more intermittent than the latter... 

There's no real need to sex them like other gourami as they are very peaceful to one another. Of course having a male and female will bring mating behaviour etc so go for it anyways but don't worry if they end up the dame sex when mature... they are a fab fish, i really enjoyed keeping them 

Also take a look at licorice gourami, their striped cousins...

Depends what we interpret as the fish being "happy"... Sorry I think I'm going to get a bit philosophical here...!  I would personally not keep any fish 'alone' unless it's nature is to be on its own and it is aggressive with its own kind for example. But...

 

Obviously we can't ask a fish if it's happy, so we interpret behaviour, coloration etc as whether it's happy. Certainly there doesnt seem to be much impact on factors such as these from keeping sparklers singly. But you could probably argue this for neon tetra, they are a very loosely schoaling fish and if kept singly it's behaviour won't change significantly, neither will it's coloration...

But back to sparklers... they are a gourami which appear to be inquisitive little fish and seem to interact with the tank contents etc which we interpret as showing intelligence. Does this mean they benefit from company and would get bored without it, or that they dont need company? Other gourami traits include that they are pair forming and don't live in huge shoals naturally. So this could indicate they are happy being on their own... or that they are best in pairs...

The simple answer is we won't truly know if we are providing the right habitat for our fish and simply experiment to see how they fair in the cages in which we keep them but we do recognise our responsibility to provide a suitable habitat for our pets which is great... oh dear I'm going off topic again... 

In thie case of sparkiling gourami the general consensus seems to be that they are ok kept on their own and they show no significqnt physical or behavioural differences when kept this way.

Good answer Matt...  I'm fully stocked anyway really and probably better off not adding a Gourami, so your reply seals the deal and I shan't bother...  So many fish to like, but can't have them all... 

Thanks fcmf...  As you say, quite rightly too, that definitely seals the deal...   

Going off, off topic, I saw a clip yesterday where two aquatic creatures in the same tank behaved as expected. However, said two creatures should not have been in the same tank, especially one that size, and the outcome gave me nightmares and has left me quite upset (lack of sleep due to said nightmares not helping either).

I can completely understand/empathise with how some scenarios involving fish can create nightmares/being upset. I can't stop thinking about the fate of those poor fish at Sue's local garden centre (in the Thinkfish Daily News thread) and have a really heavy heart over it all - this has woken me up several times since and I've felt physically sick at times, wondering what they endured (but also not wanting to know) and desperately hoping that suffering wasn't too much or for too long (but reckoning it might well have been).