New gourami keeper

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Adler

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Jan 15, 2020
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good day/night everybody

I'm Adler, I livwPanama. I recently got myself some gouramis after sometime of wanting to have a fish tank again. I got my 20G tank late december last year and started cycling last week of december, I used Seachem's Stability to help with the cycling process, I then got 4 gouramis on jan 3rd and after having for almost a month i'd like to ask some questions about them..

I'm new to the forum so forgive me if I posted this on the wrong subject

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Rbishop

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Do you have a good liquid test kit to monitor the water?
 

fishorama

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Welcome to AC. I don't see any gouramis in your pic. What kind(s) do you have? How much water do you change & how often? We'll probably have many more questions.

Like Bob asked, do you test your tank (& tap water)? What exactly do they say? "safe" is not a number we, unlike fish shops, understand or can help you with...if you don't have your own test kit yet, ask your shop to see their usually vague numbers for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate, also GH & KH if you can. Write them down & tell us.

I've never used Stability so I'm not a believer...I assume it's better than nothing...sorry if that sounds harsh...
 

Adler

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no, I'm still trying to find local kit guess I'll just have to buy one from outside.

continuing my post from last night (had to stop because had to go to sleep):
that pic I attached was how my tank started, it was a few days after i started cycling

All the plants that are curved were dying so I went out and bought more gravel (brown gravel), that was supposed to help with plants, but it didn't and the new gravel ended up clouding the water (even after i washed it thoroughly) and every since that I have not been able to get the water clear.

I then added the fish, I had understood that if I made water changes it would affect the beneficial bacteria and would have to start over, so I didn't do a water change. I got 4 3-spot gouramis or blue gouramis but 2 are yellow/gold and 1 white (too young i guess).

first impression: they are really stunning fish! when i saw them at the store the gold with stripes caught my attention because of the resemblance to a tiger, so i picked 2 of those and 1 blue to get some variety and the white one just because it is small. after a couple of days my favorite ended up being the blue one, probable because it looks like a shark.

after some time of having them: holy mollies! blue gourami is aggressive as hell, specially towards the male, she harasses the female gold and little white too but nowhere near as the poor male gold. I don't know what to do, i went to the fish store where i got them and the guy said i should separate blue from the others for 2 days so i did and when i put blue back in the tank it didn't take long for her to harass male gold again, although before she started harassing him they were doing some weird moves; I thought i was going to lose them but then i remember i saw a video where the gourami did that same move and i read in the comments that that was natural thing.

Blue aggression has decreased somewhat towards male gold but has redirected her harassment towards female gold. So she now harasses them both equally. Also, female gold sometimes harasses little white.

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Adler

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Jan 15, 2020
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Welcome to AC. I don't see any gouramis in your pic. What kind(s) do you have? How much water do you change & how often? We'll probably have many more questions.

Like Bob asked, do you test your tank (& tap water)? What exactly do they say? "safe" is not a number we, unlike fish shops, understand or can help you with...if you don't have your own test kit yet, ask your shop to see their usually vague numbers for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate, also GH & KH if you can. Write them down & tell us.

I've never used Stability so I'm not a believer...I assume it's better than nothing...sorry if that sounds harsh...
so far i've done 1-- 25% water change
no, i haven't got a water test kit so far so i can't test the quality of it.

keep those question coming, i'll gladly reply and it will help me learn more and care for these fishes i got
 

FreshyFresh

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Very nice healthy looking gourami.

The problem with them as you're seeing is they don't necessarily do well in a group like this. You're likely going to have problems with aggression to the point of killing each other going forward.

In terms of your plants, I've never had luck keeping anacharis. It's more of a cold water pond plant as far as I know. Your other rooted plants look like swords?
 

Adler

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Very nice healthy looking gourami.

The problem with them as you're seeing is they don't necessarily do well in a group like this. You're likely going to have problems with aggression to the point of killing each other going forward.

In terms of your plants, I've never had luck keeping anacharis. It's more of a cold water pond plant as far as I know. Your other rooted plants look like swords?
oh god no!

everywhere i read said get 1 male and 3 female gouramis and that's what i did...

do bloodfin tetras go well with my gouramis? will gouramis harass the little bloodfins? or will bloodfins nip at gouramis?
 

fishorama

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Oh dear, your 20g tank is too small for even 1 gourami that gets to 5 or 6 inches. Your fish are still young & small, the issues you see now will only increase. The 1 male & 2 or 3 females only works in larger tanks...with a back up plan. Male anabatoids take the lead in breeding, building a bubble nest, enticing a female...& then driving her away. She needs room to get away or she may be killed.

You need to decide on gourami(s) that can grow to adult size in your tank. (we should always plan for adult fish.) The only 1s I can think of are dwarf, honey, or croaking. I have not seen female dwarfs (dwarves?) in many years & they're prone to an incurable virus (probably due to fish farming). Honeys are pretty, I don't know if they are prone to in virus or not. They now come in wild form & a more "colorful" form. I know nothing about croaking gouramis but they seem pretty in a more subtle way. In a 4ft tank pearl gouramis are much more mellow, but still grow to 5 inches & need 2 M:4 females. These are by far my favorites.

Like FF, I haven't had good luck with anacharis (elodea) &...like your fish, swordplants may outgrow your tank. Before you get more plants ask us for help.
 

Adler

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Jan 15, 2020
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yes, of course! guidance is what i joined this forum for.

I know about my fish growth and that i need a larger tank, i just really wanted some fish and the 20G was under the budget; I plan to get a 55G this year.

as for plants, i will stick to what i have for now, anacharis made a huge mess that i don't want to go through again. i Believe the most recent plant i got brought some baby snails along with it, I just found out this week that I have 4 baby snails roaming in the tank :D. 4 is the most I've seen simultaneously but now i see no more than 3.

still waiting on feedback for the bloodfins, i really want them but i do not want them nipping at my G's.

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FreshyFresh

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I would not add more than the 4 gouramis in this 20g tank. That's alone is likely going to be an issue going forward.

I kept a group of 5-6 bloodfin tetras some years ago. Extremely active fish (like most tetras) that would do best in a tank larger than a 20g.
 
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