Any suggestions for a gourami species tank? It's a heavily planted 55
gallon tank that I'd like to stock with a variety of gouramis. What is the
recommended group size? Male to female ratio? Compatible gourami species?

I have three four inch Blue Gouramis in my 75 gallon community tank.
They have chosen their own territories one on each side and one in the
middle. Two are mails. Other than times when the two males engage in
some beautiful posturing, the 3 are very placid and only run into each
other at meal time. The male on the left side is dominant and likes
to push the other two away from the food. I use flakes, so it moves
all over and all get some.

I was worried about mating. I have seen mating gouramis tear up
plants, I also worried about the two males fighting. So far, after 9
months none of that has happened.



On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 13:47:12 GMT, "Jim K" wrote:

Any suggestions for a gourami species tank? It's a heavily planted 55
gallon tank that I'd like to stock with a variety of gouramis. What is the
recommended group size? Male to female ratio? Compatible gourami species?

I would only put one male to 3 females... reason is, the females get kinda
stressed IF mating is occuring... when that happens, tis better to have 3 to
take the pressure off the 1 that is getting stressed... and if you're lucky,
he'll mate with more than just one.... then again, ti's a pain...

"Jim K" wrote in message
m...
Any suggestions for a gourami species tank? It's a heavily planted 55
gallon tank that I'd like to stock with a variety of gouramis. What is
the
recommended group size? Male to female ratio? Compatible gourami
species?

IMHO- Pearl gouramis aka Trichogaster leeri!!! You should really look at
doing a species specific pearl gourami tank- they are gorgeous!!!
That being said my Mom has a 30g and she has 3 spot (she calls them blue
gouramis), and the gold ones. I've informed her they are the bigger gouramis
and she needs more space but she says they are happy and she's not gonna do
it right now (I think she's waiting for me to upgrade from my 55g so she can
inherit it). Anyway- she has a couple of each and I don't even think they
are pairs or anything like that. She probably has either all males or
females but she has nothing for them to bubblenest with in the tank so I
guess they wouldn't breed anyway.
So anyway... moral of the story? 4 fish in 30g and they all get along with
no major power struggles. Ergo... opaline (supposedly a spotless 3 spot), 3
spot and goldens are compatable tank mates (when not in breeding behavior).
They all get to be a pretty good size... 5-6" so maybe just breeding pairs
of opaline or 3 spot (maybe one of each?), snake-skinned (these guys are
sometimes hard to find), pearl and gold gouramis for your 55g? That's all
that would fit in your tank at mature size. Plus if you go by the 1":1g rule
that gives you about 5" of fish to play with... might I suggest some
Corydoras for bottom cleaning duties?
I've read somewhere on the net that the males will tear up plants at
breeding time. I would love to ask those who had this problem if they had
any floating type of plants (pennywort, duckweed, etc.) for the males to
bubble with? They may have been trying to make a nest and had no floating
plants to do this with so they were tearing up plants to get some nesting
material???
Here's a link for more info on labyrinth fish which has an "okay" pic of a
Pearl:
http://www.animalatlas.com/encyclo/f.../labyrinth.htm

Thanks for all of the good information. I've decided to make a gourami-only
species tank since there is such a wide variety of choices of these fish to
make an interesting tank. I ended up getting (so far) three each of the
following: Dwarf, Red Flame Dwarf, Gold and Pearl. I'm pretty sure most of
them are males.

The Pearl and Gold are supposed to be more peaceful than some of the other
varieties and hopefully will co-exist with the smaller dwarf varieties. In
addition, I have one Betta. We'll have to see how they all get along, but
so far all is well.

With the pearl and gold sexing is pretty cut and dry. Males have longer top
and bottom fins... they're more pointed than females too which are rounded.
Also when the pearls hit their breeding colors there will be an unmistakable
red tint to the males.

I personally like the dwarf and pearl gouramis. Their colours are
beautiful and I love their personalities. I also have a planted tank
and I have not noticed my gouramis eating the plants as long as they are
well fed. Gouramis are semi aggressive but only to each other so any
other tank mates will be fine with them. I keep mine with angels,
kribs, various loaches and corys. I have been keeping them since the
70's and just can't see myself having a tank without them in it.

Try four pearl and four - six dwarf for a nice tank. That will give you
28 - 32 inches of fish. One other thing about gouramis is that they
need to be able to get to the surface to breath so even if you use CO2
they will be able to get enough air.

Vicki

Any suggestions for a gourami species tank? It's a heavily planted 55
gallon tank that I'd like to stock with a variety of gouramis. What is
the recommended group size? Male to female ratio? Compatible gourami
species?

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I have a gourami tank - with tetras, cats and such

I have a Pearl, dwarf, blue, sunset thicklip, albino paradise, paradise,
croaking, chocolate, red neon, blue neon, golden, spiketail and albino
all in the same tank. Where Ii could I have females. Where the female
doesn't have color I have males.

They all do well after establishing a pecking order. When food is in
the tank they chase each other a bit but then settle back down and mingle.

the key is to not have 2 males of the same species. Of course same
species means the gold/blue and albino, paradises and dwarfs establish
pecking orders.

Jim K wrote:

Thanks for all of the good information. I've decided to make a gourami-only
species tank since there is such a wide variety of choices of these fish to
make an interesting tank. I ended up getting (so far) three each of the
following: Dwarf, Red Flame Dwarf, Gold and Pearl. I'm pretty sure most of
them are males.

The Pearl and Gold are supposed to be more peaceful than some of the other
varieties and hopefully will co-exist with the smaller dwarf varieties. In
addition, I have one Betta. We'll have to see how they all get along, but
so far all is well.