Getting Back Into Gouramis And Need Some Advice

[walker001]

Hi guys,

It has been about 10 years since I had a tank set up. I put it away when my 5 year old blue Gourami passed on. I have recently caught the bug again and started up a new tank a few months ago. I am looking at getting some Gourami for it. I was looking for suggestions. I have a 30 gal. sand/gravel substrate with scatterd lava rock caves. Medium planted, medium-high light, penguin 150 filter and a fluval 204 on it.

My current stock is 4 bronze corys, 2 SAE, 4 Black skirt tetra and 10 neons. I was thinking about a pair of dwarfs, but am not really familiar with the smaller Gourami and their habits. Any advice would be appriciated.


Thanks,
Walker Anderson

 

[sylvia]

First of all, a pair of most gouramies is not a good idea. If you want to mix sexes, go for a trio. If you don't care about the sex, single males work well. Females tend to be less colorful but more peaceful and do better kept in groups. These are very general rules - some male gouramies, for example, will do fine with other males, while others fight to the death. It all depends on the particular species you choose.

Anyway, I'd avoid adding anything mroe to your tank. It's fully stocked right now.

If you insist, I'd avoid dwarfs because they are rather disease-prone and fragile. I would have suggested pearls if you had more room to spare and didn't have those black skirts (as they are nippers and pearls have long fins).

As things stand, considering your space limmitations, I'd suggest going for a single male banded gourami (colisa fasciata). These are also called 'striped', 'indian', 'rainbow' or 'giant' gouramies. Be very careful not to confuse them with something else (especialy, don't confuse them with the true giant gourami - which gets to 30"!). Colisa fasciata is similar in color and appearance to the dwarf gourami but is far more hardy and gets somewhat bigger at 4" max.

Alternatively, a single male thick-lipped gourami (colisa labiosa) would also work kept under these conditions but stick to only one male and make sure not to be confused when you find these mis-labelled (very often they are given a false common name). This fish is similar to the banded in character but lacks the bright striped markings. However, it does grow to a slightly smaller size - usualy maxing out at 3.5".

Another option would be a trio of honey gouramies (colisa chuna/sota). Again, don't confuse them with another species - such as the dwarfs. These get to 1.5" and are quite hardy fish.


It's probably quite obvious to you from this that knowing what these fish generaly look like and, even more importantly, being aware of the scientific name, is essential. They are often mis-labelled and confusion easily arises if you don't know what you're buying.

 

[walker001]

Thank you for the advice. I have since transported the SAEs one each to my Betta tanks. So now the stock is at 10 neons, 4 corys, and 4 black skirt tetra.
I think for the time being I will just work on gardening and aqua-scaping the tank. I still need to grow out the foreground covering more and since I live 1/2 mile from a swamp area, odds are I could spend an afternoon and find a nice root structure to put in the tank after I steralize it.
I am excited to get back into Gourami's, but I hate having dead fish worse. So, I will take your advise and bide my time. Possibly buy a 55 gallon tank sometime soon for Gouramis. I just have to get creative about where to put it, space is definately limited. I am at the point of moving the kitchen table out and putting a tank there.

Walker Anderson