Checking Stocking

[Luzi]

I've got a fully matured 25L running and I wanted to check the stocking - i'm terrified of overstocking

I have
- 1 male platy (he was getting bullied)

I want
- 1 male red dwarf gourami
- 1 female dwarf gourami?
- 4 pygmy cories

Will I be ok with 2 dwarf gouramis? If not, will the male be ok on his own? Will he bully my platy?

Thankyou

 

[ZoddyZod]

two dwarf gouramis in that size tank wont work because of likely aggression. To be honest, I think it's small even for one, but I'll let other people confirm that.

As for aggression to the platy, that depends on the specimens character. I kept one with some guppies that were red/yellow and he chased them whenever he could. In a 27l tank it could be very bad considering the small amount of space the platy would have to hide in - then again, it may be fine.

 

[Luzi]

Will the gourami be agressive to a female? I thought they got along... I would only get a female if the male couldn't be kept alone.

If I can't go for the gourami I'd probably get guppies but TBH I want a single (relatively) large community fish to go with the cories

 

[ZoddyZod]

in that size tank it is more than likely. I dont think you should really have two in there at all.

A single male in a tank is fine, as long as there are no conspicifics (fish that look similar) in there which he may see as a target.

'apparently' they can be kept in 5 gallon tanks, but mine was so active that I would've thought it was too small.

 

[Luzi]

Male goes in on his own then...
I was suggested the gourami by a few forum members and they seem to be nice, peaceful fish. If he gets too active for my 25L i can always move him to my 65L which has planty of room for another fish

I was just worried that he might be agressive, as other gouramis can sometimes attack fish, especially shy ones like pygmy cories

 

[kizno1]

I defiantly wouldnt put a pair of dwarf gourami in a 25l if im honest i wouldnt evan risk one in there. I think honey or sparkling gourami would be better. I would go for 6 pygmys not 4 they do better in bigger groups.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Any thoughts on whether a pair of smaller, non agressive Killis (so not Persian or Golden Wonders) could work instead of Gouramis?

 

[Luzi]

My LFS is P@H so what they laballed as 'dwarf gouramis' are actually Red Flame Honey Gouramis - they had some young ones and some adult males at about 5cm. What P@H label as honey gouramis grow up to 15cm. The adults were way too big for my tank.
No cories (at all!) in today and my other LFS only had albinos. New shipment is in on Monday so i'll wait and see...

I'm not really familiar with Killifish and i don't think either LFS has them. Can you give me some good species names?

 

[Wills]

With a 25 liter tank I would go for the platy you have and a group of pygmy cories and that would be the tank stocked the other option would be a school of chilli rasbora instead of the cories.

Wills

 

[Twinklecaz]

You might be ok with getting a Gourami as well as the Platy but I'd seriously go for a Honey instead. and then get 5/6 Pygmys. You'll have to seriously keep an eye on the water stats though.

I've just had to remove my male HOney from my 60L for picking on the females and Honeys are supposed to be the most placid. I do think the size of the tank is a factor definitely.

 

[Luzi]

I've got no problem with having a honey, but i'm not sure LFS stock the small ones - what do they look like and how big are they? The name won't be much use, P@H don't really bother getting them right

 

[Twinklecaz]

http/www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en-GB&rlz=1T4HPEA_en-GBGB323GB323&q=Honey%20Gourami&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1004&bih=450

I think generally they're a bit smaller than Dwarfs too.

 

[Luzi]

I really thin that what P@H labelled as 'dwarf gouramis' are actually blood red honeys - they look absolutely nothing like the striped dwarfs and the males are red and blue.

I was also thinking about a shoal of rasboras but LFS only have harlequins. I saw some cherry barbs and a few kinds of tetra, but they're probably too active

 

[Twinklecaz]

Yeah I'm never sure if Harlequins count as "micro rasboras" when people refer to them. I now have a 20L tank with no fish to go in it and was wondering if I could have a shoal of them in there.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

A schoal of Chilli or Pygmy Rasboras would be better, Harlequins and Hengels would need more length I reckon than a 20l can provide