how many Gouramis can I have in a 40ltr tank

[Bugdozer]

Which can be compensated for by decent planting/decor which breaks up the sight lines and allows hiding places. A 200l tank would be useless if it's sparsely decorated so the fish can see each other the whole time.

 

[SeanTrollope]

yes but its still unnessesary

 

[Byron]

Let's take a step back...

There are two ways of choosing a tank and it's stock, once you've worked out whether your water is hard or soft.

You can buy a tank and then choose fish which will happily live in it, for the rest of their lives, OR

You can decide which fish you want to keep, and then build the tank around their needs.

As you don't have a tank yet, my best advice for you is to go to every fish shop you can get to and write down the names of all the fish you like. Then post that list here, and we can go through which ones might be suitable

DON'T ask the shop for any advice, or buy anything apart from test kits, which you will need for cycling. Tell them you're just browsing

This is absolutely the most excellent advice. I wish more beginners would take the time to ask first, as you Roen have done, and then follow fluttermoth's suggestion. Can't go wrong.

 

[Byron]

Which can be compensated for by decent planting/decor which breaks up the sight lines and allows hiding places. A 200l tank would be useless if it's sparsely decorated so the fish can see each other the whole time.

There is some truth in this, but I am afraid it is misleading. There is more to fish interaction/aggression than seeing each other, which is why the tank space is so important.

Fish release chemical signals, both pheromones (which others in that species can pick up and "read") and allomones (picked up by other species). One reason we do significant water changes is to remove these, because no amount of any filtration will remove them. So the greater the water volume, the weaker or less strong will the signals be. And these chemical signals cause severe stress to fish if they are negative signals.

A fish placed in a small space with an aggressor (like the female and male gourami mentioned) may never see physical aggression but the chemical aggressor signals the male sends out will be read. It is like putting a cat in a closed room with a vicious dog chained in the corner; the dog cannot get at the cat physically, but the cat still reads the signals very well and will be terrified.

So tank space (often length is the critical factor here) is important, along with water volume. The dwarf gourami should be in a 20g/75 liter tank minimum. And a long rather than high would be even better.

Byron.

 

[Karen_2656]

That's way too small! All gouramis should have a tank around 40 gallons not 40 litres


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk