Gourami Questions!!

Yes, you are very overstocked. Gourami species really shouldn't be kept together, especially 3 spots with the dwarfs, I tried that in my 30 gallon, and the 3 spots almost killed my dwarfs.


You could probably keep the dwarfs in the 10 gallon, but the 3 spots and the kissing gourami need to be moved.
 
First of all, as others have said you are way overstocked and a new tank is in order. As long as you are thinking about getting a bigger tank, the bigger the better in this case. I have a 125 for 5 large cichlids and I think that is pushing it sometimes because of aggression and territory issues. After all, compared to the wild where thier room is limitless this is just a big glass box and they can only go so far to get away from the aggressor.

Next, PLEASE do not ever use vacation feeders especially in such a small tank. They always pollute your tank in a very big way and they are amess to clean up after not to mention very sad when it kills all of your fish. If you are only going to be gone for a few days the fish will be fine without any food. They do not need to eat everyday like we do. They can actually go for weeks with no food. If and when you have to leave again(and you will because that is the way life is) I would do a water change before you leave and feed then normally right before you walk out the door. They will be fine while you are gone as long as the filters and heaters and such are working.

So if you can, try to get the biggest tank you can reasonably afford and take care of. Just keep in mind that bigger tanks need bigger filters and heaters and the like but are usually easier to take care of because bigger tanks means more water volume and they are way more forgiving of mistakes that we make.

Good luck and keep us updated on the progress of your tank.

Marinemom
 
Yeah...what everyone else has said.

Plus I want to mention that there is a reason why some of us have MTS; (Multiple Tank Syndrome) and that is because it's often better to slightly specialize your tanks. That is to say, community tanks are great, but you get far more leverage in your possibilities (in my opinion at least) by having several decently sized aquariums rather than one really big one.

I'm not sure I agree that one needs the biggest tank they can afford - I think it all depends on the type of system and the type of residents it will house. But for a beginner I would never recommend anything smaller than 10g unless its a specialty tank like for a betta.

So maybe after you do some research, try to consider who you want to keep and then that can determine the size of the aquarium(s) you would like to have. For now your ten has plenty of potential to be a great little system. You could keep a flame gourami and some other smaller community fish in there no problem. Just some thoughts.
 
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