Pearl Gouramis And Angels

[Birdie]

I'm planning my next tank - which I am hoping will be around 50 gallons . Already I am enjoying stocking it in my head LOL. So as yet, my imaginary fish have no imaginary tankmates, and I am just trying to work out who will work out with who, and who is likely to be a big fat no-no. I do really like pearl gouramis - but reluctantly decided that I didn't have enough swimming room for a trio in my current 20g set-up. However, I think that I would have enough space in a 50g ( 36" x 15" x 22" ) ?

Would they be compatible with angels? Or is that the daftest idea you ever heard in your lives? If they would be OK, who should go in the tank first, and at what size? Should they be added together?

Thanks for any thoughts

 

[Majjie]

I too am planning my next tank in my head and I plan to put pearl gouramis and angels together. I already have them in separate 20 gal tanks - but at one time I put one pearl gourami in with the two angels temporarily - as a time out measure. They completely ignored each other - even in such a small tank - so I'm guessing it would be ok to do it permanently in a larger tank.

 

[sylvia]

It would be fine. Add the pearls first and let them grow a bit and then add the angels.

How many angels were you planning? Personaly, I'd go for a trio of pearls and a group of 4 angels - once two paired off, I'd return the 'extra' two.

The thing is that you run the risk of overcrowding if you keep many angels and while this wouldn't be an issue under normal circumstances, if the angels breed, you will have aggression problems. If you could sex the angels to all be female, for example, it would be fine to keep 4 plus the gourami trio. Unfortunately, this isn't feasable. You might be able to plant the tank, however, so that even 2 pairs of angels co-exist quite happily with the gourami trio. It might come down to the individual fish in the end.

I thinks it's important not to lose sight of the fact that angels are cichlids and, like many of their relatives, can be aggressive - particularly in defense of their young.

 

[Birdie]

Thanks again

How many angels were you planning?

This is something that I'm very much up for guidance on, and why I'm doing as much reading and pondering as I can ahead of the game - I know they can be antsy little beggars . I know I'm in serious danger of going off-topic here ( what with it being the gourmai and anabantoid forum and all ) but your idea of getting 4 and then going down to 2 is probably what I had in mind. I have to work out what number will make the angels and everyone else - oh, and me - happiest LOL

I'm delighted to find that it doesn't have to be either or pearls/angels though -

 

[gettotank110]

from my experience they live fine together iv got 3 angels and 2 pearl gouramies in the same tank along with 3 opals and 3 gold gouramies their all pretty small still but iv never seen any agression