Gourami Salt Tolerance?

[-germ-]

Are gouramis salt tolerant?
It worth adding a little, to aid with prevention of diseases and other nasties?
How much should i add?
Can anyone reccomend a good aqua salt, preferably through their own experience, if, that is, salt is tolerated and useful....
How could i have re-phrased those questions so they didn't sound quite so impersonal?

Ps. Does anyone keep gourami and angels in the same tank and have they got any advice/ideas/info in relation to keeping those species together?

Here's hoping....
The Germ

 

[pica_nuttalli]

skip the salt. your fish don't need it and frequent water changing is a better disease preventative.

 

[sylvia]

About keeping angels with gouramies - it's perfectly possible to so but will depend on the tank size, the species and sexes of the gouramies and what sort of number/ratio the angels are in. What were you considering?

 

[-germ-]

If only you'd seen my other posts....
I've got 4 gouramis (2 dwarf,2 honey)
4 Angels (2 zebra, 2 gold)
They are all infants but my current tank is too small and......

uncycled........
If you do a member search and look under my topic help.. it will explain the current situation alot better.
The Germ

 

[sylvia]

I didn't read through the whole thread because I don't have a lot of time right now (I will do so later) but you are definitely overstocked. The fish you have also aren't ideal for cycling. My advice would be to return them before it's too late to save them. Then do a fishless cycle (all you need to do is add a little flake food or pure ammonia every couple of days and monitor your ammonia, ntirite and nitrate levels - when the ammonia/nitrite are at zero, the tank's cycled. Then you do a 90% water change and add fish.).

Of the fish you own, angels grow too big for a 17 gallon (they need 30 minnimum) and also won't work well with gouramies in a small tank long-term. The dwarfs are far too fragile to live through the cycle without consequences but would otherwise be conceivable - but not along with the honeys.

The honeys are a good fish to start with (a trio - 1 male, 2 females - is ideal) but, again, they should not be used to cycle.

 

[JackoUK]

I have both species living in my community tank peacefully at the moment. I have one female Gourami and a pair of small Angels. At the moment the Gourami more than holds her own. When the Angels are bigger and maybe breeding i'll have to keep a close eye on the tank dynamics and see what needs to be done. But at the moment the Angels even follow her around a bit.

 

[nmonks]

Purely as a bit of background information, several labyrinth fish are commonly found in brackish waters in the wild. The giant gourami (Osphronemus goramy) and Asian climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) are two of the most important in this regard. On the whole though, labyrinth fish aren't especially typical of brackish water environments, and they certainly don't need salt added to the aquarium, even at very low doses.

Cheers, Neale

 

[-germ-]

Yeah Jacko my gouramis are definately the kings (queens) of my tank at the moment as well......
They've got some quirky behavioural traits, when they were bought i never thought i'd spend this much time watching them.
Sylvia!
I'll be posting some pics soon, you seem to know a fair amount, would you keep an eye out and give me some pointers on sub-species and sex?
(how rude!)
also...
What overall size would you recommend? I'm buying a new tank soon and would introduce a plec to the mix, although whether all 4 gouramis stay together will depend on sex and species, whilst the angels are a similar situation combined with the current cycling issues.

 

[sylvia]

Can you clarify - are you going to keep all the fish? If so, you need a pretty big tank as the gouramies and angels compete for space. If you stick with just the gouramies, you can manage them in a 40 gallon though it wouldn't be an ideal set up. Angels need 30 gallons minnimum just for a pair - include the gouramies and you'll need a tank of at least 55 gallons.

Also, what kind of plec? If you stick with a smaller species like the bristlenose, you can manage it easily. While if you were to go for a common plec, you'd need at least a 90 gallon.

BTW, sure I'll look out for those pics I look forward to seeing them!

 

[-germ-]

It'd have to be a bristlenose from the sounds of things, else i'll have to dedicate my non-existent garden to an unattainable tropical swimming pool (what twaddle i spout!).

I'm hoping to get rid of two of the angels in the buy, sell, swap section on this site
Thread title; Manchester: Beautiful young angel.

So it would be a tank for 2-4 gourami, 2 angels and 1 bristlenose plec, 2 of the gourami could stay in my current tank but what difference in size would i need between keeping some/all of them together?

 

[sylvia]

If you were two keep the two honeys, say, in your current tank and move the 2 angels and dwarfs to a larger tank, provided you're a lucky person (I'll explain in a minute), you could manage them in a 30 gallon.

Now the reason I say if you are lucky is because angels, if/when they pair up and breed, become quite aggressive and won't work well with the gouramies. It isn't really possible to sex young angels though - so you'd just have to wait and see and hope both are the same gender.

Honestly, I would personaly find new homes for all your angels or else consider finding homes for the 2 dwarf gouramies.

edit: and the bristlenose would work in the 30 gallon too

 

[-germ-]

Cheers sylvia...
Whats the best way to discourage breeding if any?
Ps. If you have a good knowledge on cycling could you look at my last post in Help..
not sure if my tanks cycled....

 

[sylvia]

Do you mean in order to discourage the angels? If so, keeping the temperature low is all I can really think of - you should ask in the New World cichlids section about that - I'm not a big fan of angels

Your tank is cycled when ammonia and nitrIte readings are at 0 and nitrAte is detectable at some level (though frequent water changes or heavy planting can keep it at zero). I haven't looked at your post yet but will do

 

[-germ-]

Cheers sylvia.....
No worries on the tank question, i've been over treating and filtering my water so its back to basics, don't think my cycles even started yet. Doh!