i have always had bed fish i mean they're like the gateway drug that
got me addicted to fresh water fish keeping in the first place right
but after my last beta sonic i just kind of was like nah i think I'm gonna take a little break
I'm gonna get a dwarf gourami instead so which one do i think is better
hi I'm Irene with girl tux fish and betta fish and dwarf gouramis are actually very very similar
you know they're both labyrinth fish meaning they take gulps of air from the surface they're about
two and a half three inches long and then they like similar water parameters as well tropical
temperatures you can stay in a very wide range of pH and GH so let's dive into their differences
category number one is cost now I've seen benefits go anywhere from like three or four dollars for
a plain old veil tail all the way to a hundred plus for some kind of fancy seven colored premium
thing that i saw online i personally pay about 20 to 25 dollars for some fancy varieties that
i find at Petco first is a dwarf gourami i think i paid like eight dollars for unicorn so in this
case I'm going to give it to the dwarf guarani two appearance i think we have to automatically
give it to the betta fish i mean they are known for their beautiful flowing fins although there
are shorter finned varieties as well but they basically come in every color pattern shape size
even GloFish version that you can think of versus dwarf gouramis i mainly see c3 color varieties in
the pet stores there's like the regular blue with the red stripes on it there's the powder
blue variety as well as the flame dwarf gourami which is like orange red and they've got blue
finish i personally like the way that gouramis look as well with their little feeler fins and
they're kind of blimp-like shape but both of them are going to be very visible centerpiece fish
let's talk about hardiness in my opinion both of these fish are ridiculously hardy and can
stand up to a ton of abuse from beginners making mistakes that being said dwarf gouramis are known
for having this iridovirus dwarf gourami disease i hope i said that right where because of inbreeding
they sometimes develop this viral infection they can have like discolored lesions and lumps on
their body i personally have not experienced this um I've never seen any fish personally
have this and i don't know i haven't talked to anybody personally who has experienced this but
sure i believe it's out there um yeah versus betta fish everybody hears about them getting sick you
know they've got popeye fin rot ich um pine coning they're bloated constipated egg bound you know you
name it people are always saying that they're better fishing stick and maybe that's just cause
people purchase more of them so i don't know i guess I'm gonna rank them as tied in this one
because again i i seriously believe they're both pretty hardy for the most part that being said
most of my gouramis really all of them they've never really gotten sick and all of my benefits
not all of them but a lot of them have experienced fin rot whether that's from just having long fins
that are more prone to that or tail biting which i know is more of a behavioral thing but still
it makes me worried speaking of personality this one's really hard to describe because i feel like
it just depends on the fish you know some of my gouramis and bettas they'll just come up to
the glass and beg for food all the time versus Sonic like hated me and was super camera shy
but i know what you're really here to hear about is aggression so let's take my past three betta
fish and pass three dwarf gouramis i would say for the betta fish Darth Vader was a community fish
Soundwave was aggressive when he was young but he mellowed out when he was older and
then Sonic was so aggressive that he tore up his own fins when trying to chase other fish versus
dwarf gouramis Kai was super mellow Peyton Manning attacked my poor albino corydoras
and had to be removed and then Unicron i mean he's he kind of gets along with everyone except
during meal time which we'll talk about in a second bottom line it's probably like 50/50
whether or not you can keep your betta or dwarf gourami with tank mates because it really depends
on the fish itself is it too aggressive or too stressed out from territorial disputes
or also the tank mates that you pick I've actually had really good luck with certain livebearers like
platies they just don't seem to mind or get stressed out by being chased by a big angry
you know centerpiece fish so highly recommend food requirements i mean identical in my opinion both
betta fish and dwarf gouramis are gluttons for the most part very very easy to feed whether it's
floating pellets freeze-dried foods frozen you name it um Soundwave the betta fish he would
guard the food from other tank mates even when he was an old man and Unicron oh my goodness he's
obese because he's such a food bully and even when i feed tiny foods that just scatter everywhere
he's just so much faster at eating compared to the kuhli loaches and the pygmy corydoras so
i may have to have their meals and maybe do a second feeding at night time and see if that helps
breeding i think it's so fun breeding bubble nesters because the male will like put the little
fertilized eggs in his bubble nest and guard them like it's so cool the unique behaviors you
get to see i had a lot of fun breeding gouramis although it was honey gouramis but very similar
in that once they became juveniles i did not have to separate out the males and the females like
they pretty much could stay together in the same tank until they were ready for sale however it was
like nearly impossible to find any female gouramis now betta fish on the other hand very easy to find
females i think Inglorious Bettas recommends going to like the International Betta Congress
competitions and then you can talk to breeders there and get like a high quality male and female
however once the juveniles become older you will have to jar out the males because they will start
fighting with each other and that means doing lots of frequent water changes or maybe an automatic
water change however i think bettas will probably be easier to sell just because they're in higher
demand i don't know I'm going to put this category as tide but you guys let me know what you think
if you've been counting you know that we have a tie
although i feel like the betta fish's flashy appearance should count for two points because
they are without a doubt like one of the number one best sellers at pet stores
as for me personally i go through phases and right now i am really enjoying having Unicron
the dwarf guarani here in this display tank but i do look at my office tank sometimes and miss
having a better fish so let me know down in the comments which fish you think should have won
otherwise take time to enjoy your aquariums and I'll see in the next video