Dwarf Gouramis

[fishbone]

I would love to have dwarf gouramis in my Trigon 190, at present I have 3 albino corries, three amano shrimp and two zipper botia. They all seem to be happy enough although I am planning on moving the cories to a tank with a sand substrate. The trigon has a small black gravel base.
Anyway, I would love to have the dwarf gouramis as my main fish in this tank. So some expert advice is desperately needed. From what I've read so far they are:
- prone to bacterial diseases,( so I'm assuming I'd be in for a lot of water changes, or would 50% once a week be sufficient, quaranteening(sp) all new fish, and generally keeping a close eye on water stats and fish health. Anything else I can do to prevent infection? And what can I do to treat any suspected infection?
-can be aggressive towards other males(So would two females to each male solve this?)
-Can I keep the different coloured dwarf gouramis together? I've seen 'neon blue' and I think the other was 'sunset' Need to look into that a little more.

I'm in no rush as the tank has only been set up a short time, the first fish only went in a couple of weeks ago. The tank is partially planted but will be adding more plants soon and plenty of hiding places. The temp is 26C.
Any and all advice greatly appreciated.
One more quick question, How many dwarf gouramis could I comfortably accomodate in a 190l corner tank?

Cheers (mrs fishbone)

 

[sylvia]

190 litres is about 48 gallons... what else is going in the tank besides the dwarfs (and besides what you already have obviously )? In theory, you could fit quite a few in (say 3 males, 6 females) but only if you want to dedicate the tank, somewhat, to the gouramies.

Males are territorial, females are not - so you only really need to cater for the males and the females work out A ratio of 2 or more females per male is ideal.

Quarantining is certainly advised. Your biggest problem will be fish suddenly showing symptoms like dropsy or developing ulcers. Dropsy, at least, is almost always bacterial. You'll need to have a hospital tank cycled and ready for isolating sick fish which you can treat with antibiotics (or antibacterials in some cases). That same hospital tank can be used, initialy, for quarantine - make sure it's cycled.

Note that you'll have to get all the males at the same time. Personaly, I'd get the females first (add them two by two if necessary) and add all the males at once afterwards. The colors are irrelevant - all are exactly the same species - but make sure all the fish are approximately the same size. I'm mentioning the need to add them at once because it can pose quarantining problems. You can either get round this by using cheap plastic food storage boxes as quarantine tanks like I do (so you can afford to have big ones or multiple ones ) or you can get them one by one but rearange the main tank before each is added to put them all on 'equal footing' and prevent territoriality.

Dwarf gouramies are not only very prone to infection but also to being stressed (which leads to infection). This can be the result of fluctuations in their environment - such as temperature changes or alterations in water chemistry. This means that smaller but frequent water changes are better than one huge one every now and again. If you start off with healthy fish (which can be difficult, unfortunately) dwarfs are relatively resilient to disease as long as they aren't stressed so will so well with a weekly 25% water change provided you don't stock heavily.

Heavy planting is always a good idea - both to keep water quality good and to provide territories and prevent aggression. Similarly, make sure the current created by your filter is gentle.

Just a thought - are you set on dwarfs? If not, easier fish are honey gouramies (same sort of requirements but you could keep mroe and they'd be less likely to drop dead - lots of color morphs too but not quite as flamboyant) and thick-lipped or banded gouramies (both of these two are larger but far hardier and equaly beautiful - you'd possibly have to reduce the number you keep but they are worth it).

 

[OceanGoddess]

I'd like to add that the blue paradise gouramis are beautiful! They are my favorites! You should get a few to put in your tank.

 

[fishbone]

"You can either get round this by using cheap plastic food storage boxes as quarantine tanks like I do (so you can afford to have big ones or multiple ones )"

How do you go about using plastic containers? Would they not need to be cycled, filtered, heated etc? And how long would you quaranteen them for?

Aside from that, you've given me plenty to think about. I'll have a look at the honey gouramis, but think I'll probably stick with the dwarf as I love the colours. Not sure that I'll have any other fish in there with them except maybe some ottos for clean up crew. Someone suggested guppies as a possible addition, if so would the dwarf gouramis eat the fry? (rather hope they would, keep the population down!)

Thank you for all the advice.

 

[sylvia]

Yep - I treat the plastic containers exactly as I do any ordinary glass tank.

I'd quarantine for a minnimum of 2 weeks though, with dwarf gouramies, it can take longer for symptoms to show up. Then again, as long as you keep the quarantine tank cycled (use pure ammonia or fish food to fishless cycle and then just continue the process when there are not fish in it - if you don't know about fishless cycling, read through teh links in my signature) you can always use it as a hospital tank at the first sign of disease if necessary.

Guppies will also eat their own fry but, yes, whatever fry they can find the dwarfs will eat. The problem is that the sort of planting dwarfs like is also ideal for sheltering livebearer fry The solution is to just get male guppies only. As long as you keep 4 or more, there's no aggression.

Paradisefish (Macropodus opercularis) are highly aggressive. They should never be kept with dwarf gouramies and generaly not with any other gouramies either. Even in a species tank they are difficult to keep peaceful. Males will often fight to the death and both sexes form strict hierarchies - a challenge can lead to death.