Compatibility

[genesfish]

I'm very new to this hobby. I got my first tank in September, pretty much spur of the moment at the instigation of my 6 year old son. Its 10 gallons and has 3 harlequin rasboras and 2 platies. I'm thinking of getting a bigger tank, but this time I intend to do a little more, ok a lot more planning before I take the plunge. I'm considering a 55 gallon tank, 48"x13"x20" but before I go ahead I'm giving a lot of thought to what kinds of fish I want to put in it. The fish I'm considering are: Angelfish, Krib, some kind of cory, maybe 3 lined, Black ruby barb, Cherry barb, dwarf gourami, honey gourami, Pearl gourami, pencilfish, Zebra danio, some kind of killifish and maybe some kind of tetra, maybe cardinal or black neon along with the rasboras and platies I already have. Of course I don't expect to get all those fish. I'll stock it a little bit at a time and decide on what to buy based on what's available and looks good on my shopping trips. Still, I'd like to know ahead of time if there are potential compatibility problems with fish I might like to buy later . Do you see any problems mixing any of the fish I have mentioned? Are the Angels going to eat the tetras or whatever? I'll probably consider other fish when I actually get to the shop and start looking and suggestions for other fish would not be unwelcome. Anyway, my first thought is something like this:

Harlequin Rasboras 6-10
Platies 2-4
3 lined cory 4-6
Blue Dwarf gourami 2
Honey gourami or red dwarf gourami 2
Angelfish, Krib or Pearl Gourami 2
Another small schooling fish would be nice if there's room or maybe a pair or two of something else.
Any comments or suggestions welcome,
Thanks

 

[shang hi]

angle fish will eat neons tetras as there there natural food in the wild, and they tend to eat small fish aswell.
corys need to be in groupes on 6+
kribs are easy to breed just make sure you have somewhere to put the babys like wise with the platys. you need 3 females to 1 male with platys and there will be fry. kribs sometimes come in pairs and if you wise them to breed you should buy in pairs.

its nice to see someone new asking before buying instead of buying the fish, they kill eachother then asking what they did wrong and getting angry at the responces. i think you will be a great fish keeper
shang hi

 

[Luketendo]

Harlequin Rasboras 6-10 Fine
Platies 2-4 - Fine but they do breed but with your fish most shouldn't survive, but then there's your son to think about..
3 lined cory 4-6 - Get 6+
Blue Dwarf gourami 2 - Careful, generally Gouramis don't mix. Dwarfs sometimes have a incurable disease.
Honey gourami or red dwarf gourami 2 - Careful, generally Gouramis don't mix. Dwarfs sometimes have a incurable disease.
Angelfish, Krib or Pearl Gourami 2 - Angelfish, won't eat small fish if added as babies and added after the small fish, also if your height is 20" you might just get away with it. Kribs - Don't know much about them. Pearl Gouramis, excellent choice, but get 2 females or 2 females 1 male. Also generally Gouramis don't mix.

 

[genesfish]

angle fish will eat neons tetras as there there natural food in the wild, and they tend to eat small fish aswell.
corys need to be in groupes on 6+
kribs are easy to breed just make sure you have somewhere to put the babys like wise with the platys. you need 3 females to 1 male with platys and there will be fry. kribs sometimes come in pairs and if you wise them to breed you should buy in pairs.

its nice to see someone new asking before buying instead of buying the fish, they kill eachother then asking what they did wrong and getting angry at the responces. i think you will be a great fish keeper
shang hi

Thanks for the reply. Ok, the neon tetras are out, but what about some of the slightly larger tetras like the cardinal or penguin tetras? Would Angels eat them too? On the other hand, I think I read somewhere that the black neon Tetras can be fin-nippers. Would they bother the angels or gourami?
As for the Corys, if I were for example to get 3 albino cory and 3 three lined cory, would that give me a happy group of six or 2 unhappy groups of 3? Will different types of corys school and or breed together?
Alternatively, if I went with 6 dwarf cory, would the angels eat them? Thanks,

 

[genesfish]

Harlequin Rasboras 6-10 Fine
Platies 2-4 - Fine but they do breed but with your fish most shouldn't survive, but then there's your son to think about..
3 lined cory 4-6 - Get 6+
Blue Dwarf gourami 2 - Careful, generally Gouramis don't mix. Dwarfs sometimes have a incurable disease.
Honey gourami or red dwarf gourami 2 - Careful, generally Gouramis don't mix. Dwarfs sometimes have a incurable disease.
Angelfish, Krib or Pearl Gourami 2 - Angelfish, won't eat small fish if added as babies and added after the small fish, also if your height is 20" you might just get away with it. Kribs - Don't know much about them. Pearl Gouramis, excellent choice, but get 2 females or 2 females 1 male. Also generally Gouramis don't mix.

Thanks for the reply. When you say Gouramis generally don't mix, do you mean 2 male blue dwarf G. won't get along or do you mean the Dwarf G. wont get along with the honey Gourami or the pearl Gourami? Would I be OK with one male and 1 female of each type? Thanks

 

[Davo86]

Thanks for the reply. When you say Gouramis generally don't mix, do you mean 2 male blue dwarf G. won't get along or do you mean the Dwarf G. wont get along with the honey Gourami or the pearl Gourami? Would I be OK with one male and 1 female of each type? Thanks

this does depend on specific fish, and the size of tank they are homed in, If you stick to Honeys and Pearls i think you have a pretty good chance of not having many problems. IME dwarfs and three-spots can be much more territorial towards other Gouramis.

from your list my reccomendation would be

Harlequin Rasboras 10
Platies 4 (1M 2F)
3 lined cory 3
albino cory 3
Honey gourami 3
Pearl Gourami 3 (1M 2F)

 

[Luketendo]

Black Neon Tetras aren't nippers.

 

[genesfish]

Thanks for the reply. When you say Gouramis generally don't mix, do you mean 2 male blue dwarf G. won't get along or do you mean the Dwarf G. wont get along with the honey Gourami or the pearl Gourami? Would I be OK with one male and 1 female of each type? Thanks

this does depend on specific fish, and the size of tank they are homed in, If you stick to Honeys and Pearls i think you have a pretty good chance of not having many problems. IME dwarfs and three-spots can be much more territorial towards other Gouramis.

from your list my reccomendation would be

Harlequin Rasboras 10
Platies 4 (1M 2F)
3 lined cory 3
albino cory 3
Honey gourami 3
Pearl Gourami 3 (1M 2F)

Its just that the powder blue dwarf Gourami that I saw in the shop looked so fine. Do you think it would be territorial with the bigger pearl or just with other gouramis closer to its own size? Also, with the pearls, do you think it would be OK to go with just 1 male and 1 female to make a little more room for something else? If I had 2 pearls and 2 dwarfs(or honeys) and cut the rasboras to 8, maybe I could squeeze in a pair of something else, Maybe killifish or kribs or maybe just leave some room for the platys to expand. Thanks.

 

[Luketendo]

Dwarf Gouramis still look fine even when they have that terminal disease.