new 37 gallon tank

[xxaprilrose]

I have had a tank that's 37 gallons set up for about a week. It's still in the cycling process so I am doing my research on what fish I want to put in there. I never thought of owning Gourami's but I did just see a bunch at petco today and they were in all different colors and beautiful! If I did an all gourami tank, how many could I keep in it? Also, are all different types compatible together? I saw dwarf, pearl, honey, paradise and a few others I cant remember and they were all stunning! Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[BlueJungle]

I’m not overly knowledgable on gourami, but I do know that they can be territorial. I would stick to one gourami as a centrepiece, or a single male with a few females, and then complete the stocking with compatible fish, such as many types of tetra and rasbora.

 

[Essjay]

It is not a good idea to mix gouramis species, I'm afraid. As BlueJungle said, stick to one species.

I would chose from pearls or honeys. Both are at the peaceful end of the gourami behaviour spectrum. 1 male and 2 or 3 females.

Dwarf gouramis bred on farms in the far east are often infected with an incurable disease by the time they reach the fish store. Locally bred dwarfs are fine - if you can find any.

Paradise fish are quite aggressive and need cooler water than other gouramis, which limits their tank mates. Their temperature range is 22 deg C/72 deg F at the most, preferably a bit cooler for long term.

 

[Uberhoust]

I would stay away from the three spot, blues, and gold gouramis they tend to be very aggressive, or have been in my experience. @Essjay and @BlueJungle suggestions would be what I would go for.

 

[Byron]

I concur with above posts. Will just mention that the Blue Gourami, Gold Gourami, Cosby, Marble, 3-spot, and likely other varieties are all the same species, Trichopodus trichopterus, and as @Uberhoust said, they are indeed aggressive. One of our members had a female Gold kill every other fish in the tank (or started to, before being removed), and I have seen this gourami attack and kill and eat tetras in store tanks. Two males will often go after each other until one is killed. These are not exceptions.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hi and welcome!
It's a shame they're so territorial, a tank filled with all the different varieties and colours would be stunning and elegant! Well, until they all murdered each other at least... *ahem*

Sorry it's not the news you were hoping for. But a single gourami or pair still make a stunning centrepiece fish, and stand out even more when compatible fish are chosen,;then you have this single/pair of elegant fish slowly moving around, waving those tendril things. A real attention grabbing diva!

Just wanted to say kudos to you for setting things up properly, making sure the tank is cycled, looking at the fish you like then researching whether they will work in your tank long before buying them - that's awesome! The majority of the time, people begin the hobby by adding lots of incompatible fish to a brand new uncycled tank and experiencing a lot of deaths as a result. Often based on bad advice from an employee of a fish store... that's a really rough start to the hobby that means a lot of folks quit fishkeeping before they've really begun. But you've clearly done your homework, so you're setting yourself and your fish up for success. Love to see it!


If you like the idea of a full tank with lots of colour variety, have a look at some African cichlid tanks. I'm not a cichlid keeper so I don't know whether they can work in a 37 gallon (usually pretty large tanks for those guys) but they're certainly beautiful and impressive fish in the right aquarium, so worth looking at some nice tanks on youtube anyway!