Can I Have Gouramis In My Updated Tank?

[julibob]

I have started again on my 29 Gallon tank which did house Malawis. It is now quite heavily planted with sand substrate, and is home to a shoal of about 15 Cardinal Tetra and 2 YoYo Loaches. I will be adding a small shoal of about 6 cories as well.

To finish off the stocking, I was going to add a pair of Opaline Gourami, but looking at other posts, it seems to be the general consensus that my tank may not be big enough??

I would be grateful if someone would let me know my options. I really did want to add gourami's to finish my tank off as I have enough shoaling fish now and wanted to add a couple of larger, slower fish.

Here is a pic of my current setup

Julia

 

[sylvia]

Your tank is pretty close to full as it is but you could just about fit a trio of pearl gouramies or banded gouramies (Colisa fasciata) if you are careful to keep up with water changes. These grow to about 5" and 4" respectively so, strictly speaking, it would be better to just keep one single male in either case so that you don't overstock. Smaller suitable species would be thick-lipped gouramies (Colisa labiosa) which grow to 3.5" max. or honey gouramies which grow to only 1.5". With thick-lips a trio would be ideal. With the honeys, you could either get a trio (1 male, 2 females BTW constitutes a 'trio') or get a small group with the ratio of 2 or more females per male. Your tank at the moment doesn't have enough plant cover for gouramies to feel comfortable though to be honest so I'd leave this addition until your tank's a little more mature anyway. Mature tanks can also handle more bioload so this would be perfect.

Opaline gouramies (one of several three-spot color morphs) are rather aggressive, territorial fish and keeping them as pairs is never a good idea as one will bully the other - sometimes to death. This is somewhat true of all gouramies actualy - it is better to keep them in small groups or alone. Three-spots grow to 6" so aren't suited to your tank cosnidering how close to fully stocked it is.

 

[confusion]

I'd say either they honey gouramis, or the pearls. Both are great. Honeys are pretty fun to watch play, while the pearls are just majestic and beautiful fish.

 

[julibob]

With regards to the maturity of my tank, It has been matured for 2 years. All I have done is remove the old stock, and clean up.

The tank is over filtered with an Eheim 2236, as it used to house Malawis. According to the Stocking Density calculator I used, I can have approx 43" of fish with normal filtration, so I made that, I have approx 33" of fish (full maturity) at the moment.

Anyway, none of you mentioned dwarf gouamis, but I bought a pair of powder blue's yesterday. That will be it now apart from a trio of corydora.

With regards to plants, I have more vallis on order, which should arrive tomorrow, and will add more high level planting to the tank.

A bit late now, but let me know what you think??? The research I did, said that the dwarf gouramis are relatively peaceful.

Julia

 

[sylvia]

Using an 'aquarium calculator' to decide on your tank's capacity is a very bad idea. I always suggest using the 'inch per gallon guideline' as a rough guide but, beyond that, you need to research the fish and test your water parameters regularly. Young fish don't produce the same amount of waste as adults so you cannot realy tell whether you are fully stocked or not until all the fish are mature. You need to consider that different fish have different requirements and calculators don't take this into acount. Also, the idea that 'so many inches of fish' can fit in a tank is clearly flawed if you compare 5 neons to a bristlenose pleco - same 'inches', very different waste loads!

Now I'm done ranting - the reason I personaly didn't suggest dwarfs was not aggression but their tendency to carry disease and suddenly drop dead. They are, however, generaly peaceful - though with two males and not many plants, one may begin to bully the other as it claims the tank for its territory as soon as both have settled in. There is a thread pinned at the top of this section with info. on dwarfs.

BTW, gouramies don't enjoy a strong current (cause you mentioned you were 'over-filtered') so make sure it isn't too much for them (though they should be ok once the plants arrive).

 

[sylvia]

oops - double post