Opaline Gouramis

[TammyLiz]

Hi, I am new to the forum and thought I would ask the opinion of the gourami enthusiasts before doing anything else rash in my impatience to get some fish.
Right now I have a 10 gallon tank with a Penguin Biowheel 100b filter on it and three Opaline Gouramis that are a little more than 2 inches long. I bought them a week ago and the woman at the LFS told me that they were all female and I took her word for it. The tank was already cycled (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10). My plan was to move them to a larger tank once I got it cycled as well. All was peaceful for a few days but then during feeding I noticed a pecking order had been established and the most dominant one had changed color to be much darker than the others. So I did some research and found out how to tell males from females (and also found this forum). It looks like I have at least one male. I am hoping I don't have three. I would like to post pictures but I have misplaced my camara. The one that is dominant has a pointed dorsal fin and the other two have rounded, but there is no difference in the length of the dorsal fin. Maybe it is because they are still young. Anyways, I am going to assume I have one male and two females.
I would like to share my plan and see if anyone has thoughts on whether this will work or not.
I would like to have a planted tank with the three opalines and hopefully add two (female) golds. I am aware that they are color morphs of the same. I would also like to add a school of rosy barbs. I saw some exceptionally bright and healthy ones at the LFS when I bought the gouramis last week. Hopefully they will have more of the same when I go back to buy some. I would also like to add some sort of bottom feeder, corys or loaches or something.
I have an empty 20 US gallon tank (24in.x12in.x16in.) and an empty 55 gallon tank (48in.x12in.x19in.), but neither of them are cycled. I read a thread about adding additional gouramis and am now concerned that if I add the golds I will have problems with aggression. As I see it I have a few options and I would welcome thoughts on these. I could move the filter from my 10 gallon to the 20 gallon (since the filter is already cycled) and add the golds at the same time that I move the opalines over so neither would be already established in the tank. Would it then work to run two filters at once and then pull the first one off as the second one gets bacteria built up? Then I could later add the barbs, and move everything into a larger tank in the future. Possibly my 55 gallon but I am not sure I don't want to have that set up for something else. Possibly get a 40 gallon in a year or so to move them all into, but cost may prevent me. I'm not sure how fast they grow.
Another option is I could just leave the three opalines in the 10 gallon for another month and do a fishless cycle on both the other tanks. Then I would be able to rearrange however I wanted to. This would leave the three of them in the 10 gallon by themselves for possibly a long time, and I'm a little worried they might start resenting each other in that small space.
This post has gotten way too long so I'll stop here and see if anyone has any insight on what kinds of problems I may run into here and what I can do to avoid them.
I just feel so impatient because I'm excited to be finally getting my tanks set up again!

 

[sylvia]

I have to admit that when I started reading your post, I felt my heart sink and was expecting the usual mistakes with three-spots in uncycled 10 gallons . However, I was pleasantly surprised. You have evidently done your research when it comes to cycling and have some larger tanks besides your 10 gallon so it won't be quite as messy a step to keep those fish happy and stress (for everyone) to a minnimum.

However, 3 opaline gouramies (or even just one realy) shouldn't be in a 10 gallon. They also won't work in the 20. As you'll soon find out, males can be extremely aggressive.

Your plan with the cories, rosy barbs and adding two more female golds is fine. Moving the filter and running it along with another until the bacteria are established is also the right way to go.

The one thing I must point out is that, if you want to keep your gouramies, you need to move them to the 55 immediately (and add the new female golds at the same time as well). By 'immediately', I mean, do it tomorrow... Get the 55 running with dechlorinated tap water and a heater/filter. Tomorrow, assuming the equipment is all running ok, transfer the 10 gallons' filter and the three gouramies to the 55. Right after, go and buy the two gold females you are considering adding and put them in as well. It's a good idea to also transfer as much of the gravel/substrate from your 10 gallon to the 55 so that, hopefuly, even with the extra couple of gouramies, you won't have an ammonia spike. Over the next couple of weeks, keep feeding to a minnimum, do plenty of regular water changes/gravel vacuums and monitor you water quality. Three-spots are very hardy fish so, hopefuly, with a little luck, you won't experience a spike but, if you do, the fish should still be ok. In a 55 gallon, 1 male three-spot with 4 females, having been introduced practicaly at the same time and being of similar sizes, should get on ok.

The only thing to note is that, if they breed in future, you may find you need to take the male out to protect the non-gourami inhabitants (particularly the cories you mentioned you're thinking on - as things like rosy barbs can usualy handle this sort of aggression much better).

Like I said though, the 10 and 20 gallon tanks are not an option so, if you don't want to devote your 55 gallon to them, you'll have to return them to your LFS.
It's also a good idea to find that camera and post some pics so someone can acertain their sexes - if it turns out you have more than one male, you're going to have to re-think the plan.

 

[TammyLiz]

Thanks Sylvia I appreciate the advice. I think I will put them in the 55gal.
I had another thought, though. I want some rainbows boesemani and/or praecox and thought they might be OK in with the gouramis and barbs. The Praecox may do OK in the 20 gallon, but I wouldn't be able to have Boesemani unless they were in the 55 gallon.
Does anybody know if they would do OK together?

 

[sylvia]

Either the preacox or boesmani would do fine in the 55 gallon with the three-spots BTW, those are some of my favourite rainbows - along with melanotaenia lacustris . Great choices!

 

[TammyLiz]

moved