Another Gourami

[BethK]

i can fully recommend the juwel rio 125, it doesn't actually take up that much space

 

[LondonguyJ]

Personally If your stats are zero I'd get the neons. My green neons are quite stunning and they reflect light and almost change colouration depending on how fast they swim and what side of the tank they're on. I've heard about that 6 month maturity theory before but consider this...

On Friday I had to go through hoops to gt the wild green neons (no red just silver and green) and had to buy them from a fs instead of the planned breeder. In the fs they were not showing the best coloration. In fact they were quite dull. But within 24 hours of being in my aquarium they are extremely vibrant. Better than any pic I've seen online and I'm not just saying that because they are mine. I think with good water parameters you can add what you want.

Oh by the way the red honey females don't seem to have a problem with the gold honeys. I just caught the male gold kissing one of the new red females and the other two honey zooming about as though they were jealous

Before entering the aquarium (sorry about the exposure)

 

[Twinklecaz]

I just found that, it's ever so slightly (sooo slight) too wide for my chest of drawers...that I'm probably pusing my luck to have a 60L on lol. It was a flat pack from Ikea

It's a nice tank though. Nice size too, big but not too big. Is it big enough for an Angel?

 

[Twinklecaz]

Hi Londonguy

Yeah that's the thing. I had been pretty much talked out of the Neons but my stats aside from a couple of teething problems have been really good. I haven't had Nitrates over 20 atall, usually they're 10. But I hadn't considered the whole darting and Gourami issue.

I'd love to get Green Neons....if I could find them anywhere

 

[BethK]

it's not about stats, with the neons, 54ltrs with 3 gourmais and neons is not ideal. Neons are darty and can be nippy tetras, gouramis are territorial and if pushed to the edge can retaliate, plus if a fish is small enough to fit in a G's mouth, it will eat it.

not everything is about stats, it's about knowing the needs and attitudes of fish

 

[LondonguyJ]

Hi Londonguy

Yeah that's the thing. I had been pretty much talked out of the Neons but my stats aside from a couple of teething problems have been really good. I haven't had Nitrates over 20 atall, usually they're 10. But I hadn't considered the whole darting and Gourami issue.

I'd love to get Green Neons....if I could find them anywhere

If your filter is cycled and you've done your qualifying week then I'd say go for it. Obviously others would disagree but they make a great addition. I think they are really quite vain they'll school together but whenever they pass my 6 diamond tetras they automatically starts schooling with them and I think it's because they can see their reflection in the diamonds. They are roughly an inch each and my gouramies, platies, and balloon mollies are roughly 3 inches each (and grow to 3.2 inches max) so obviously there will be no cases of tetras being gobbled lol

By my gold gouramies were quite timid when I first put them in (1m 2F) but have been growing in confidence since. Now that I have added the two red honey females the male (gold/yellow) has been much more active and the females seem to be competing for his attention. So I'd say go for the red/gold honey mix as long as you have just one male

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah that's the other thing, I have to make sure it is female and I find them really hard to sex.......obviously so does the bloke in my other LFS seeing as the ones I have were both spose to be female

Tank is cycled, has been for a couple of months nearly now but every time I rinse my filter out I do seem to get a very very slight Nitrite showing the next day. Then the day after it's gone. Very strange but I don't wanna jump into anything stupid.

It's like handbags isn't it, if you give a woman a bag she'll fill it. See I'm thinking oh if only I had a slightly bigger tank then I could get the the Honey and the Neons no prob. But then if I had that I'd think oh if I had a slightly bigger tank I could get a school of Harlequins too and some Pandas. Then I'd think oh if I had a slightly bigger tank I could get an Angelfish and maybe a school of Diamond tetra......and so it goes on lol.

So maybe I should just get a 60 gallon and be done with it!

 

[BethK]

yes get a 60 gal lol

try buying from a breeder online, you'd be guaranteed a female or male of your choice

get the gourami and if you upgrade, add a shoal of tetras AND rasboras

the handbag analogy relates to me.......got my 125ltr yest, got 3 apistos coming on tues, bringing me up to 10 female bettas, 1 male betta, 8 khulis, 4 corys and 3 amano shrimp AND NO MORE!



although, 1 khuli and 1 amano have disappeared, i'm blaming my bettas for that

 

[LondonguyJ]

My stock list changed at least 20-30 times during my cycling period so I understand where you're coming from there

As for the red honeys you'll tell them apart by the fact that they are paler than the males. I got them from the lfs this morning and it wasn't that hard to spot once they were all together. The healthy males looked almost ruby to me while the females whilst duller also lost coloration in their fins.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Oooo a breeder online, there's an idea. I'm gonna search that now. Does anyone know of any good Gourami breeders?

I think that's the best idea yeah, save the Neons till I get a bigger tank.

It's such a shame though, picture this - i've got loads of green leafy plants, 3 fish that are yellow, one that's bright orange and one thats yellow, orange and black......how nice would the Neons have looked with that.

This is good though coz it will make me properly think about getting a bigger one now

 

[BethK]

this ebay seller is good, a friend got her fish from there and i brought my apistos from there;

ebay link

there is a contact phone number on there, give them a call and speak to her son, he'll let you know if they have males in.

have a look through aquarist-classifieds and google, it's a painful search but very rewarding x

 

[Twinklecaz]

Thanks Beth

That's confusing, they say that the females are bigger but my male is significantly bigger than my female

 

[BethK]

does the female still need to grow?

females grow to 2" and males 1.5" apparently but considering the male wraps the female during spawning, you would think the male would have to be bigger........strange world!

are you intending on breeding them?

 

[Twinklecaz]

Nah, having one of each was an accident. They were meant to be 2 females but then SOMEONE built a bubble nest and the people in the G forum said from my photos that I have 1 male, 1 female. Apparently it would be very unusual for them to get any further than just building the nest in a community tank which I suppose is good coz I'd only wanna keep them all!

My male is easily 2 inches, more if I include tail. The female is prob 1.5. How strange is that? I'm sure I have them the right way round too. The bigger one is more colourful and chases the smaller one.

Their fins look exactly the same to me though, I really can't see a difference