Gourami Stocking Help Please

[ellena]

I have a 60l I am about to set up. I want some cories for the bottom and already have 7 endler males to go in it.
I want to finish it with something of a different body shape, so am thinking of gouramis.
I understand honeys should be kept 2 females:1 male, but then have also read they are very difficult to sex?
My other thought is to have 1 dwarf gourami.
Any thoughts/insight on this idea appreciated-Thanks

 

[ellena]

Forgot to mention, whatever I chose will be in a 27l quarantine tank for a few weeks first, before going into the 60l.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I'm in a similar boat to you. Have a 60l and will be having Platys, Harlequins and Pygmy Corys and decided to have just one Gourami as a centrepiece fish. I've been advised a Dwarf one should be fine. I'm gonna get a female if I can find one I like or a male if not and that should still be ok. Someone did tell me though that honeys are even less likely to be agressive than a Dwarf .I think most other Gouramis have a higher risk(and grow too big for a 60l of course) so if you really wanna play on the safe side maybe one Honey? I don't really want to do that coz it's another orangey colour (planning to get get Red and Red Wag Platys see) but for you it might be good.

Can't help you on the sexing of Honeys though sorry. I know Dwarfs are easy to tell but I don't know about them.

 

[ellena]

I like your stocking idea, harlequins are a fish I would like to have one day, the copper ones, they are so vibrant!
I know what you mean about trying to get more colours in there, that's why I thought maybe a bluey dwarf would be nice. Females are quite drab in dwarfs aren't they?

 

[Essjay]

If you go for wild coloured honeys, they are easier to tell apart. The males are a tan colour and the females are beige. Sometimes, males in the shop can be stressed and look like females, so the best thing to do is get the most highly coloured fish - which is most likely to be a male - and chose the females from the beige coloured ones which have a darker stripe from nose to tail as they are more likely to be females than very stressed males.

The yellow colour morphs are harder to sex though.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I like your stocking idea, harlequins are a fish I would like to have one day, the copper ones, they are so vibrant!
I know what you mean about trying to get more colours in there, that's why I thought maybe a bluey dwarf would be nice. Females are quite drab in dwarfs aren't they?

Yeah I'm hoping to get copper ones. Those and the Platys are the only fish I decided early on I wanted and never changed my mind about.

Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines - a bluey dwarf. The females are more drab than the males but I've seen pics of ones that still look nice, silver with hints of colour through them. I think I'm just gonna see what looks nice/healthy on the day I get it. I'd prefer a female for harmony reasons (and I do like silver)but I've been told I prob shouldn't have trouble with a male.

I think really you take risks with any fish though, any one of them could turn out to be a bully or a fin nipper. Especially males.

 

[ellena]

Just got back from my LFS and had a look at the dwarf gouramis. I've always discounted them due to the disease they can be prone too, although I've always thought they are awesome looking fish.
They had separate tanks of natural, flame and neon blue. All looked healthy and lively except the neon blues which looked a little sluggish. I think they were all males? No difference in colour at all, they were all very bright and colourful.
I very nearly came home with one, but just stopped myself. I only had the idea really a couple of days ago and I like to think things through carefully!
I still like the honeys, esp. the ones which are yellow with the red edgings, but I want to be sure I can avoid any issues with the grouping.
essjay, I've never seen any wild coloured ones And to be honest I am a sucker for bright colours!

 

[Essjay]

I do agree about the colours - mine are the yellow variety. I find it hard to put into words about how to tell the sexes apart. I've had honey gouramis for about 10 years and after looking at them for so long, you can just tell but can't explain why. I got a pair in January and the shop owner was a bit annoyed with the wholesaler for sending such tiny ones as he thought they were far too young to tell. But one had a bit of a brown stripe and has turned out to be female. Another just looked like a male to me - he is now busy building a bubblenest. Four months on, the female still has her broken stripe and orange edges to her fins. The male has a tinge of black to his throat and all of the tail end of his body is orange while the front is still yellow. The yellow variety males don't get such extensive black throats as the wild coloured ones - at least the ones I've had didn't.
That doesn't help you at all does it

Look for one with a stripe, even only a bit of one for a female. Then look for one with the fins as different as possible, or different body language, and traces of black round the throat if they are fairly large - that is more likely to be a male, but you won't be able to tell for certain till it starts to build a bubble nest.

 

[ellena]

Thanks essjay, gives me something to go on at least.
On the idea of dwarfs, just been googling and found someon who put neons in with hers and he started eating them! This is making me wonder would this be such a good idea with the endlers? Most resources say they get to 2", but every one I've seen seems much larger than that.

 

[Gourami123]

i have many tetra types in my 700 litre tank including neons and as my user name shows i have almost every type of aquarium gourami in there and no small teras eat them or the gouramis eating them
should be fine with endlers

i suggest a pair of honeys and a pair of ordinary dwarfs

or you could keep a group of any number that will fit your stocking density as long as females outnumber males

neon tetra are fine

corys make brilliant tank mates by the way

at breeding time males throughts will turn bluey black

 

[ellena]

Thanks, that's put my mind at rest. I think I'm going to get 1 male dwarf and quarantine him in the 5 gall for a good few weeks.
In the meantime, I can get the main tank setup and some cories in there.
Then eventually, put them all together That's going to be a lot of water changes for a while!