Ok... I went and did it. I got the gourami's. I had a chat with the guys in the shop (a very respectable store) and discussed aggression etc. and they havnt found that to be a problem with these particular fellas. My next aim is to try and locate 'Scouse Ray' - a local guy who has bred these fish for some in depth info
They are in the 60 litre with 6 Celestial pearl danios (CPD's). However, I will be removing some/all of the danios to my breeder tank soon.
The tank is filtered by an Eheim 2211, lit by 2 X 22" T5's (6 hours daily) and dosed with tropica plant nutrition and KNO3 (to maintain nitrates at over 10ppm). I feel pressured into a planted tank (my excuse) due to the unusually high phosphate in my tap water - anything from between 5-10ppm. By planting the tank and dosing everything but Phosphate the plants soak it down to manageable levels.
The CPD's tend to inhabit the lower reaches to mid tank zone, the gouramis upper with occasional forays down to the bottom.
They seem to get on well... in fact the gourami's seem to have brought out the danio's and made them less skittish. Even thought the gourami's have been 'hardened' (i think that's the term) to live in a water pH of 7, I have been keeping the tank between 6.5-6.8, and the temp ~26C
The settling in period is over and the fish seem to be colouring up well. After a few territorial disputes the gouramis have settled and swim together. I have 3 females and one male (I think).
The tank is heavily planted with some bogwood. Despite soaking for 5-6 weeks the blasted stuff is still leeching tannins... but apparently the fish like this. The upper reaches of the tank have lots of vallis leaves extending over from the right, with elodea arching over the top from the left. I also have some cyperus helferi in the left corner. There are a few crypt wenditi at the front of the tank, and I am currently trying to get a small carpet of HC going at the front (with little sucess). A nice java moss slate is growing nicely at the back of the tank though
Long term plans include moving the gouramis to a larger tank (my 180L) but I have some old panchax in there at present who I dont want them mixing with.
A small pic of the tank midway through planting:
It looks much more of a jungle at the moment as I haven't trimmed the vallis or elodea which arch completely over the top of the tank! Also, as you might have noticed this was taken pre HC.
