Gouramis and Angels

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nikkilugi

AC Members
Jul 30, 2008
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Hi. I have a 45 gallon hex tank. I have been reading on this site about hex tanks and saw that gouramis were recommended as well as angels. Well we got some gouramis today - 6 in total - 2 dwarf sunset, 2 irridescent, and 2 flame somethings. Anyway I was wondering if we could add any angel fish into the tank or not? I have seen some posts where people have them mixing in their tanks and I think angel fish are beautiful too.

TIA.

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I have 3 Pearl Gouramis (1 male and 2 females) and one adult Angel (marble) in my long 72 gal. The gouramis get along fine, with the occasional chase of each other but nothing more intense than the way my tetras do the same. However, the dimensions and struture of that tank (especially with those large driftwoods in there) may not be that condusive for a lot of medium fish and I can see 6 gouramis and an angel, let alone what else you may plan, sort of "bumping" into each other more than they might want to. My angel is by no means shy but he does seem to like to have a nice place to hide and chill out sometimes, as does the male pearl gourami. I do not see too many places they can do that in your tank. Just looking at it I can see it feeling a bit tight for them. Could be a recipe for a stressful tank.
 
My husband waterscaped the tank and he likes it. I have tried telling him that it was a bit busy to me but so far the fish seem to be ok with it. They actually have a lot of places to hide and they seem to be utilizing all of the spots. I haven't seen any fighting and/or chasing yet - all fish are just keeping to themselves.

I know the LFS isn't always the best place to get info but the guy there told me that the gouramis all should get along with each other. I do have 2 honeys in another tank and they get along great with each other and the tetras but I think honeys are a bit nicer aren't they?

We will be getting a larger tank this winter or early spring at the latest. We got some fish during a Craigslist transaction that are just going to be way too big for the 55g and we hope to get them moved over to a 120 g within a few months. So the 55 gallon should be open soon if I see any problems I can move things around between our tanks.
 
I got that info from the person we bought the tank from - I went online and did some calculations with my measurements and calculated that the tank is closer to 40 gallons.

The gouramis look comfortable, I have been watching them closely and I have seen no fighting. With only 6 in the tank they really do have room to spread out - in fact when I turned on the light this morning it didn't even look like I had fish in the tank - the were all entrenched in their hiding spaces.
 
Gouramis can be very conspecific aggressive, especially Trichogaster trichopterus (Blue, gold, opaline, three spot, etc.) I am going to bet that you will run into problems sooner or later.

That tank looks much too small to be 45 gallons, but I am bad at guessing size from pics. I would say no angels given the footprint of the tank and the possible problems with the current stocking.
 
I have 2 gouramis with 4 angels in a 72g. None of them are mature yet but I am starting to see aggression already. I bought the two as "honey sunset gourami" but after some research and looking at them I am starting to think that they are actually two different species one being Colisa chuna and the other being Colisa labiosa or maybe Colisa sota. The aggression is mainly between the two gouramis themselves. It especially obvious during feeding time when all the fish surface. In a hex you dont have alot of surface area. Gouramis need to surface to breath so I would guess that they would end up beig at the surface together and fighting :(
 
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Well I guess I will keep an eye on them. Right now no problems at all that I can see although of course I am not by the tank 24/7.

The fish are beautiful and I have other tank plans in the works so I will be able to move fish around soon. I am not interested in having unhappy fish - just so everyone understands that. Sometimes though fish can surprise you and get along - I am hoping for that obviously :)
 
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