Adding Cichlid With Gourami?

[cjc75]

Question, and I'm sure this one has been asked many times over...
 
I have a 37 gal tank.
 
In this tank, I have 3 Blue Gourami... two males and one female.  The largest close to around 4 - 5 inches... hard to get a precise measurement as they freak whenever I try to place a ruler against the tank near them... they think its net or something...
 
With these 3 Gourami, I also have a large Angel Fish... probably around 5 - 6 inches.
 
I've had these fish for several years, they're very hearty... but the male gourami can be on a bit of the aggressive side towards newer fish.... they tolerate the Angel, simply because its much bigger then they are.  But when I've added new gourami in the past, these males have terrorized any new additions... and the female hides from them. 
 
The following Pic is from about a year ago... you can see one of the gourami in the foreground near the lower right, and another one in the upper left near the heater... and just below and behind that one is the Angel...
 
The blinds behind the tank, for reference are about 1 inch each.. the Angel and the gourami in the back, is right by the back of the tank about 4 inches away from the blinds..
 

 
 
 
ANYWAY..
 
My girlfriend, who lives with me, really wants me to get into Cichlids, and I'm a little interested in them as well...
 
So, my question is...
 
Are there any cichlids that might get along with these gourami and my Angel?   Or should I look into getting rid of the gourami all together if we want to do Cichlids?   Would they also be able to get along with the Angel; and how many of what sized Cichlids would be suitable for this size Tank?

 

[BerryAttack]

there are many different kinds of cichlids and many are very aggressive and need to be kept on large groups to spread out the aggression, while other aren't so aggressive and be kept with schooling fish.
 
before you get cichlids you need to understand which ones you want to get. jewel, convict are very aggressive and would recommend to stay away from (only ones i know because kept and quickly switched back to community tank)
for your tank i would stay away from the aggressive cichlids because they will not have enough room for the amount you need to keep the aggression in check. also they are known to rip up all live plants.
 
what you can do is get rams, they are a type of cichlid that can be kept with community fish.
gold ram
German blue ram
electric blue ram
Bolivian ram
 
for your tank IMO what i would do is remove the gourami, all of them, then if you still wish to have a gourami go with a dwarf powder blue, then get the gold ram and have a nice school of tetras. it'll liven you tank up nicely.
you'll have the silver angel, blue gourami, gold rams, and ex/ a red type of tetra. the colours will balance and IMO look nice as the fish "pop" out so to speak.
 
the gourami if put with cichlids might get beat up, and the angel will also if you go towards a full cichlid tank.
 
just my opinion, but you can go another way.

 

[Fishmanic]

I have an angel with 2 bolivian rams, a blue dwarf gourami, a bn pleco, and 3 swartzi corys.   They get along fine most of the time except at feeding time,  the angel will nip at the gourami as they both feed at the top and the angel is a glutton wanting to keep the gourami away from the flake food. 

 

[cjc75]

Cool, thanks for that advice guys..
 
I think I will look into some Rams....
 
To be honest, the Blue Gourami weren't my first choice in Gourami because of their aggressive behavior.  I used to have some Tetra's and Danio's and such, but the male blue gourami killed them all.
 
The Dwarf Powder Blue's were my favorites, cause they were always so gentle and personable, but when we were ready to restock this tank after moving a few years ago, I couldn't find any available anywhere so we went with the regular Blue Gourami...
 
If I can get them fished out, I may take them to my local Petland and get some credit off them, put it towards adding a Ram or two, then grab a school of Tetra's... cause I miss having Tetra's, they're very beautiful schoolers.