More Gouramis???

[Megan]

Hi

I am fairly new to the hobby and extremely new to gouramis. I have a 4' tank (250 litres) (67 US gals). I have the following fish with an external canister filter which has the capacity of 1500 Litres per hour (sorry not sure on the conversion). I have an enormous amount of plants. (anubias, ambulia, lots of vass, hygrophlia, java swords, java moss, crypts, 4 banana lillies.

Fish
10 Harlequin Rasboras
10 Kuhli loaches
5 Clown Loaches (2 lge + 3 very sml)
3 very sml Bronze corys
1 lge bronze cory
1 male Neon (blue)Dwarf Gourami
1 female Neon(blue) Dwarf Gourami (arriving next week)
1male Flame Dwarf Gourami
1 female Flame Dwarf Gourami (arriving next week)

I am wondering if I am able to add another pair of Gouramis. Dwarf ones or ones that don't grow too big. If I can add another pair which would be the best choice?? The 2 males that I have in the tank now occassionally chase each other but are often seen sleeping right next to each other. Or am I at my limit of fish??

Thanks so much for the help

Megan

 

[Katchan]

You could try adding some other types of gourami, pearls tend to be peaceful for their size (though my female is more violent than most of my other fish put together but thats my luck). You could also try 6-7 sparkling gourami. Otherwise commonly availible are moonlights or 3 spot (and morphs ie opaline, gold, platinum etc) all these would be best for 2 females to avoid males getting territorial otherwise at a push you could try one male and 2 females to round out your tank.

Katchan

 

[Megan]

Thanks for your input. I had originally intended to get 4 Pearls (3 f + 1m) but was told that they would get too big for my tank. Do you thing that I really have room for more of them. What are sparkling gouramis? How big do they grow?

There is not a great range of fish here. I had to order in the females and they have taken over 2 weeks to get (from Brisbane so I'm told). I could have driven down myself and got them sooner!!! We get that all the time though, not just with fish.

I am tossing up whether to get some more dither fish for the loaches. Unsure of how many more fish are possible.

Thanks

Megan

 

[sylvia]

You shouldn't actualy be adding any more fish to that tank. Particularly, with the loaches, you are over-stocked. However, because it is heavily=planted, I would think bio-load isn't much of an issue and, as the majority of your tank's inhabitants are bottom-dwellers, the middle and upper layers still contain enough 'physical space' for more fish. Once the clown grow though, you are still going to have to re-home them.

If you realy want more gouramies, getting a couple more female dwarfs would be a good idea as you'll find they get chased by the males and keeping more females will divide this stress.

To answer your questions, sparkling gouramies are trichopsis pumilus, a very small (only to about an inch) gourami, closely related to the croaking gourami. They can also 'croak' and are very peaceful towards other fish but the males do show some aggression to their own kind (nothing serious). They appreciate a planted tank. Unlike most other popular gouramies, they don't spend their time in the upper layers but wonder throughout the tank. They can be quite shy if kept with more boisterous species and aren't a good chocie if kept with aggressive tank-mates. I'd say adding about 5 of these would be ok (as well as the 2 extra female dwarfs). A male or two with the rest being female is the best choice. If you don't know how to sex them, search this forum.

Alternatively, you could get a trio of the larger croaking gouramies. These get to just over 2" and have the most stunning blue eyes. They are generaly peaceful towards other fish but males can be aggressive towards each other so stick to 1 male and 2 females.

Also, pearls don't get that big - only to about 4-5" - and are the most beautiful and quite peaceful fish. A pair or trio would be fine in your tank if you don't get the 2 extra female dwarfs I suggested before. They would also be fine with your 4 current dwarfs and 5 or so sparklers/3 croakers.

Can I just ask, what kind of dither fish were you thinking? I eman the rasboras should already be functioning as 'dither fish'. I wouldn't add any more realy if I were you anyway - not if you want more gouramies as well.

 

[Megan]

Hi Sylvia

Thanks so much for all your info.

I was wanting to get some more fish to occupy the middle of the tank. As the 2 male gouramis that I have now seem to spend quite a lot of time near the bottom of the tank eating algae, they are not very visible. I was looking to get a bit more colour in the tank. We have only 3 lfs here and they are very limited in their stock. I think that I will have to decide exactly which fish I want and then try and coax them into ordering them in specially. Not sure how I will go.

With the 2 dwarf gourami males I now have, do I understand correctly, I could get the 2 females that I have ordered and then another 5 sparkling gouramis??? Will the dwarf males need 2 females each or will a pair of each exist happily?

Thanks so much

Megan

 

[sylvia]

Yes, you understood correctly.

As for the last part of your question, that is somewhat up to you. It is my personal opinion that it's better to keep them in trios but you should be fine with just pairs as your tank should be big enough to accomodate any chasing and the females should be able to hide from the aggression. If you would like to get an extra couple of females (besides the two you've already ordered), you can still get the 5 sparklers.

 

[Megan]

Thanks so much for all your help. Greatly appreciated.

Megan