New Pearl Gourami

[SouthernCross]

Hi everyone

Partly based on the responses on the 'survey thread' I made about dwarf gouramis over here , I decided to go with a different type of gourami (also, this time at the LFS the dwarfs looked pretty awful already) - so I've brought home a lovely male pearl gourami .

I had hoped to get a trio (m/f/f) but they had no girls. The LFS assistant told me they rarely get girls in too. I thought this was a bit strange, cos don't girls essentially look the same, just without the orange throats and slightly shorter fins? How will he be on his own? I'm just wondering whether I should make the effort to drive around a bit and try and find some females. I don't want him to start terrorizing the tank. And I think it would be nice to have a few in there.

BUT I'm not sure whether they'll fit now. I realised I bought a few too many extra cardinals than what the stocking plan in my head allowed space for (intended only 6, but they had a 10 for $ deal - although I do admit the larger school looks great). So currently my 39 gallon tank has the following:

1x Pearl gourami - 4"
3x Platies - 6"
4x Bronze/Albino Cories - 8"
10x Cardinal Tetras - 20"
= 38"

But allocating 2 inches for a little cardinal who seem so small in comparison to say a platy who is also 2 inches seems a bit strange. The cardinals are taking up a huge chunk of my 'inch per gallon' rule - but I know this rule can be flexible depending on the fish - but I don't know enough to make that judgment. Could someone tell me is it possible to go over the rule, and by how much, given my current inhabitants? Or really, can I fit two pearl females (another 8 inches of fish?) in there or not? As far as I know none of these fish are likely to be aggressive.

This might be one for sylvia since I know she loves pearls

Thanks

 

[The Mottfish]

I think it depends on how old/mature your tank.

I've read somewhere that after 6 months or summut you can start to have 2 ins. of fish per gallon.

Thats just what I've read somewhere, best to rely on someone with the experience.

 

[Biulu]

I would stay with the one pearl you have. They are fine on their own, and should not express any agressiveness towards the other fish in your tank. Pearls are much more friendly in character than dwarfs do!

 

[sylvia]

I'm surprised the LFS didn't stock any females and, actually, I suspect they in fact do and the person you spoke to managed to confuse pearls with another gourami species - such as the dwarf - of which they may well only stock males.

I personaly think it would be worth the effort to buy a couple of females and your tank can definitely handle them. The 'inch per gallon guideline' is just that - a guideline. It can easily be exceeded in a mature tank and is only really there as a guide for initial stocking. Also, the lengths you have listed appear to take the length of the tail into acount which normally isn't done. Certainly very few male platies grow to 2" (though females do) and cardinals aren't usually 2" long (put a ruler beside them).

A single male would be fine though. However, pearls are one of the most social gourami species and males will be more colorful when with females. All pearls are more outgoing and hide less when they are in the company of their own kind.

Great choice going with pearls (though I'm biased lol)

 

[SouthernCross]

Hey sylvia!

I'm surprised the LFS didn't stock any females and, actually, I suspect they in fact do and the person you spoke to managed to confuse pearls with another gourami species - such as the dwarf - of which they may well only stock males.

I personaly think it would be worth the effort to buy a couple of females and your tank can definitely handle them. The 'inch per gallon guideline' is just that - a guideline. It can easily be exceeded in a mature tank and is only really there as a guide for initial stocking. Also, the lengths you have listed appear to take the length of the tail into acount which normally isn't done. Certainly very few male platies grow to 2" (though females do) and cardinals aren't usually 2" long (put a ruler beside them).

A single male would be fine though. However, pearls are one of the most social gourami species and males will be more colorful when with females. All pearls are more outgoing and hide less when they are in the company of their own kind.

Great choice going with pearls (though I'm biased lol)

Well, actually I'm pretty sure all they had this time at least were males - they all had orange on their chests (I'd done some reading and I'm pretty sure that's only males isn't it?). They're a pretty good store, I might give them a call in a couple of weeks (after the filter catches up to the latest lot and it's time for more) and see if they have any, or, if they could get any in for me. There's one or two other stores I'm willing to try too.

Would my tank be classed as mature at 3 months old?
I took those measurements from the fish index on this site - the supposed maximum size, which did say 2 inches for both platies and cardinals. My cardinals especially look very tiny at the moment - but I figured babies do grow and I should take that into account. They are supposed to end up a bit bigger than neons, although they look similar. What sizes would you allocate to these fish then? 1 inch? 1.5? I've kinda had the inch/gallon rule driven into my head since I started hanging around here and I have no idea how I would go about judging how much I can exceed it by. If it helps, I do have an undergravel AND a Aquaclear 50 HOB - I had read the more filtration you have the more fish you can have...

 

[sylvia]

Yep, orange means male I'm just surprised they don't stock females since they look rather alike - particularly when immature.

I'd say cardinals grow to about 1.5" and, I personaly wouldn't consider a 3 month-old tank mature (I take it you don't either ). I'd say you need to wait at least double that - but that's personal opinion.

Whilst still keeping territorial behavious, physical space needed, activity levels etc in mind, a good way of deciding how much room you have for fish is to test your nitrate levels. If you can keep these under 20ppm with only one weekly 25% water change, your filtration, at least, can handle the bioload. The other concern is dissolved oxygen - but this is rarely an issue in an adequately filtered tank and, certainly, exceeding the 'inch per gallon guideline' by a few inches isn't going to affect this. You are right, however, fish grow And as they do so they produce more waste. As such, if you are unsure of how far you can exceed the inch per gallon guideline safely, let your existing fish mature before adding more. You'll probably find you also have a better idea of how much your tank can hold by then anyway

 

[SouthernCross]

Yep, orange means male I'm just surprised they don't stock females since they look rather alike - particularly when immature.

I'd say cardinals grow to about 1.5" and, I personaly wouldn't consider a 3 month-old tank mature (I take it you don't either ). I'd say you need to wait at least double that - but that's personal opinion.

Whilst still keeping territorial behavious, physical space needed, activity levels etc in mind, a good way of deciding how much room you have for fish is to test your nitrate levels. If you can keep these under 20ppm with only one weekly 25% water change, your filtration, at least, can handle the bioload. The other concern is dissolved oxygen - but this is rarely an issue in an adequately filtered tank and, certainly, exceeding the 'inch per gallon guideline' by a few inches isn't going to affect this. You are right, however, fish grow And as they do so they produce more waste. As such, if you are unsure of how far you can exceed the inch per gallon guideline safely, let your existing fish mature before adding more. You'll probably find you also have a better idea of how much your tank can hold by then anyway

No, I most definitely didn't think my tank was mature! Well I'll definitely wait until it's 6 months old (I'd heard at least 6 months = mature too ) before I go around experimenting with exceeding around 40 inches of fish then. That is, of course, as long as my new fish help me keep the platy population under control I've got at least one fry that's survived long enough to be big enough not to be eaten, and there were at least two more but I haven't seen them since I added the new guys so here's hoping the pearl gourami has a taste for lil fry. They're so adorable I don't think I could bear to cull them myself if nobody else in the tank will help me out . But then again if they live, they have nowhere else to go unless I can con some friends into starting up tanks.

I hadn't heard of that nitrate thing before, that's great as another guideline! Completely makes sense too. Before I'd got these new fish I'd never got a reading even close to over 10, I measured two days after adding the new fish and it was still about 10, but I figure they're still settling in and the filter would still be adjusting so I'll wait a little while before I make a judgement. Will definitely be keeping that under consideration! Thanks for the info.

Well if cardinals are only considered that small then that bumps me down to about 33" of fish. Which gives room for two more pearls easily. Really, the only other fish I want to add are a couple of ottos to help with the algae on my plants (looking a bit yuck), which I'll add next, as soon as I can find some (last trip to my usual LFS they didn't have any). And lastly I'd still like to get a single angel if possible starting with a baby (which I think I discussed with you once before when I was still thinking about getting more dwarfs ages ago). I've searched the forum, people don't seem to have any problems with pearls and angels together (although I think it was mentioned angels can get aggressive when breeding, but I only want to keep one so shouldn't be an issue...) The baby angel would be the very last thing I add - especially want the cardinals to be mature. Heard angels only like mature tanks too. From what I've read pearls don't seem to be aggressive. Don't know whether that will change if they try to breed? Don't know either if they need special conditioning to encourage that though. So my 'ultimate' stocking would work out at around or just under 50" of fish. Obviously I will keep an eye on my nitrate beforehand to determine whether I can go over by this much.

Oh about my male pearl too - is it normal for his 'orangeness' to change a bit during the day? I've noticed he looks very bright in the morning and afternoon but when it gets later at night he fades a bit. But is then bright again in the morning...I figured it's probably nothing to worry about unless he looked constantly pale, but I figured you'd know if anything was wrong Yeah I thought it was weird no females too, considering they're nearly just as pretty, but I'm sure I'll find somewhere with some eventually. He'll do fine on his own in the meantime though right? Do females (aside from making him more colourful) affect him in terms of whether he'll be more or less aggressive? I'll assume a trio is better than a pair as for most gouramis, even if they're the most peaceful.

Thanks

 

[sylvia]

I think your stocking plan sounds fine though, personaly, I wouldn't have gone for the angel (I suspect you already know I'm not mad about them ). This is just a personal bias of mine - a single angel should be ok with a trio of pearls (and, yes, a trio is best). Still, you'll need to watch this addition carefully. From past experience I've found single angels often become terrors - I may just have been unlucky though (and you may want to ask around in the New World cichlids section for some more opinions on the matter).

You'll probably find your male chases the new females around a little when they are first added (well, actually, usually male pearls color up really bright and start 'flirting' with the newcomers - they start the chasing a little later) but this'll calm down quickly. They do spawn of their own accord quite easily but are nowhere near as aggressive as most other gouramies. Still, around this time the male will chase other fish out of his territory and away from the bubblenest. This won't last long in a community anyway but it doesn't normaly result in any harm being done to the tankmates regardless. If the temperature in the tank isn't too high and there are plenty of plants in the tank to mark out territory boundaries, any aggression should be minimal. But, yeah, he'll be fine on his own for as long as necessary (you don't have to add females if you don't want to or cannot for whatever reason).

The color change is normal. In fact, a lot of fish do this - not just pearls, not even just gouramies It just happens to be more noticeable on pearls because it's easy to see the contrast. I also notice it quite evidently on my black phantom tetras, for example, and, often, on darker cory species (though with them the change isn't a day-night thing but rather they change depending on whether they've been hiding in the dark for a while).

 

[SouthernCross]

Oh yeah, I definitely want the female gouramis - I think the tank will just look more balanced, and it would be fun and interesting to watch them interact. About the angel - I went asking questions last time, usually with a breeding pair you're guraranteed they will terrorize, with a single one it more pot luck with what kind of temperament you end up with - you might get a nasty bugger or a docile peaceful one. You never know, 3 months down the track when I potentially might add one I might have changed my mind anyway But the definite plan for now is some pearl ladies and ottos.

Thanks again for all your help and the extra info sylvia! Appreciate it.