Gouramis stocking advice for 55 gal. tank

[Rebgen]

Now that I've decided on what filter, heater, substrate, etc I'm ordering for my new 55 gal. tank, I'm starting to narrow down what I want to stock it with. I've read about any thread mentioning gouramis and am a little confused. I think I'd like to stock a community tank with these beautiful fish. So far I've identified the following "candidates" as potential selections.

Pearl gouramis
Dwarf gouramis
Neon Dwarf Blue gouramis
Fire Red gouramis

I'd also love to add a few Sparkler gouramis but have read they might not fare too well around their larger cousins.

In addition to these I'll probably add:

1 - Amano shrimp
3-4 - Otocinclus
3-4 - Panda Corys

Here's the stuff I'm confused about. Some people have written you can have a peaceful community of gouramis...especially with ones like the docile Pearl's. Others say don't mix them due to territorial aggressiveness. I plan to get males due to their great color. Breeding them would be a lot of fun but not something I have the skill or knowledge to be successful at right now.

I need your advice on putting together a good plan.

1) Should I get all males or mix with a 1 male/3 female ratio?
2) Can I mix the varities of gouramis I mentioned?
3) Should I get two of each variety or biger groups of each?

I know I need to be careful not to overstock, so I might not be able to have the variety if larger groups than pairs is better.

Finally, some of these varieties are not stocked in my area and the LFS don't seem excited about ordering what they don't already have. I've checked out several internet based fish stores and was curious if that might be a good option.

Thanks for putting up with another long-winded post. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think. Now, on to getting ready to start a fishless cycle!

[emoore]

1) I would suggest at least one male to two females. I have a male pearl and 2 female pearls in my 55. The male chases the females around a little but nothing serious.

2) My experience has been that 2 males of different species will fight. I originally had my male pearl with a male dwarf and the pearl nearly killed the dwarf.

3) I would stick with a group of the same species.

This is just my experience with gouramis. I'm sure other people have had different experiences with them.

[Rebgen]

Thanks for the info emoore. Anyway I can get you folks to give me a few more opinions? I don't want to screw this up. Thanks.

[ecvjohn]

See my tank list below, they all get along with the ocassional chasing of each other during feeding.

[nursie]

Rebgen..you must be reading my mind!! I'm setting up a 55 gal and am looking at much the same type of grouping of fish, so I'm interested in seeing what folks have to say. Are you going to use live plants? I've been thinking about that too. I will definitely set up a 10 gal and planting it, and am thinking about planting the 50 too.


evcJohn...do you just have one each of the stated types of gouramis?

[Gilgamesh]

You may want to reconsider having Oto's with your Gourami's. My moonlight and three-spot Gourami's got along well together, but my Oto's liked to go after them, attaching themselves (at least that's what it looked like) to the sides of them...

[nursie]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that's seen this kind of thing. I had one otto in a 10 gal with a betta and it kept going after the betta as if attacking it.

I'd mentioned this in another thread and wondered if stocking 2 or 3 ottos would keep them from bothering other fish since they had their own kind to play with...was yours a lone one, or a group?

[bigfishguy]

hey buddy....

a couple tips on gouramis.....
most get big like the moonlight and pearls....
so take that into consideration when deciding how many.....
pearl gouramis love vegatation as well as the others....
but to bring out the true behavior and to have a 5x better looking pearl gourami,
make sure to stock ur tank with alot of java ferns and anubias species as these plants do vewry well in low light conditions which is the correct lighting to have for a tank full of gouramis.....

and yes aggression will happen its almost impossible with a bunch of gourmais but the more the better.....
this gives the dominate male more guys to chase so not just one fish is being harrassed and stressed out.....
and yes u will have a dominate male either it be a dwarf flame or a blue....

plus breeding these guys is simple.....
get a rubbermaid bin maybe 12 inches high..
make sure its heated to about 80 degrees...
throw some floating plants, a couple good ones are anachris which is simple or hygro or hornwort.....
very light to no aeriation...(gouramis do have labyrinth organs which let them breath air from the surface)
and ur set...
throw the female and male in ther....
mayb to females if the one looks like it is being harrased severily.....
and in a day or two tha male will have the bubblenest built....
they will breed and youll have a bunch of babies.........
then sell em back to ur lfs!!
or giv um to friends...

hope this helps

[Rebgen]

Thanks bigfishguy...that'll help a lot. I do plan on using live plants. I've been experimenting with low light plants in my son's Eclipse 12. So far they've been doing great.

My 55 gal. will definitely be a low light tank at around 1 WPG, so it looks like it'll be fine for the gouramis. The plants you mentioned are the same ones I've been considering with my tank plan, so I'm glad I'm on the right track.

One reason I'm looking at dwarfs in addition to Pearls is that they don't get as big. Hopefully that'll give me a little more wiggle room to add a couple more fish.

Nursie: Good luck to you on your 55 gal. tank. The information I've learned around here over the last few weeks has been incredible. It's amazing the stuff the different LFS folks will tell you. I depend on this forum for all of my guidance in setting up a tank now. Now I just have to get that tank filled and cycling!


* Oh and thanks for the breeding information. Once I get a little more experience under my belt I'd love to try breeding gouramis for fun. That info will help a lot. Thanks.

[Gilgamesh]

Nursie,

I had 4 Oto's, they were always harrassing my Gourami's... They had convex bellies, so I don't think it was hunger motivation, I think they just liked to pick on my stately moving Gourami's...

[bigfishguy]

and on the subject of otos

i would tell u ur probably better off gettin cory cats....
there not agressive EVER and u can mix and match for a nice looking school of different types

[TKOS]

Well ottos and cories do different things in tanks. They are really interchangable.

[pisces22]

Speaking of Gouramis and aggression.....

I think I have a really weird situation- I recieved a new 20 g, cycled it, and wanted to put 3 male dwarf gouramis in it-but everyone said it wasnt a good idea, so instead I bought 1 male dwarf for each of my three tanks ( i love them!)

However the pet store I purchased them from was new, so I though I could just quarantine the three in the 20 for a couple of days9unless aggression was too severe)

It turns out they get along shockingly well-there is one larger and two the same size-they all occasionally flare at each other during feeding times and chase for 2 secs, but nothing more severe then my mollies or platies. Ive inspected each one every day for signs of fin damage, bullying ect but there is nothing

They ve been hapily co-existing for almost a month-its a pity to split them up-they look so gorgeous together.....oh well

[TKOS]

When they are younger it isn't always so hard for them to get along. They tend to get more aggressive as they age.

But gouramis can also be gentle as well. Sometimes it depnds on the individual fish. These fish are generally listed as semi-aggressive because it is hard to tell what they may end up doing.

So it might be okay to try keeping them together but be aware that it might be necessary to move them in the future.

[Dianna]

I have a 55 gallon heavily planted tank with four gouramis: a pearl, a dwarf flame, a regular honey, and a red honey. The trick is to have LOTS of plants, especially floating ones. You also need other fish to act as dither fish. I have a school of about 12 harlequin rasboras, 6 cherry barbs, 5 siamese algae eaters, 4 flying fox, four kuhli loaches, a leftover zebra danio, a few otos, and three mountain minnows. If something interesting starts going on in the tank, everybody rushes into the fray. This sort of breaks it up in a hurry. I've never had problems with the otos bothering anyone, of course with all the plants they have plenty of algae. I also throw in some sinking food for the kuhli loaches and the otos (and everyone else) eats that too. The gouramis chase and squabble occassionally but nobody ever gets hurt. I read that you have to have several of them, that way the harassment is spread around. I was actually thinking about adding another pearl. They seem to be the most peaceful. The little honey gourami seems to be the bully. Pretty funny to see him chasing away the much larger pearl and flame!