Pearl gouramis

[Elisabeth83]

Well I bought 4 pearl gouramis but I was thinking of maybe only keeping a pair and returning the other 2. Or maybe just keeping a male by himself but I'm not sure if that would be ok or if he needs company?

 

[lucky62]

We have one male , he lives with a trio of keyhole cichlids , amoung a few other fish , he seems fine , we've had him since Feb. 2004 .......

 

[Elisabeth83]

I'm so confused about what fish to keep I had this whole plan for what fish to keep in the 55 gallon and now that I've got them the tank looks plain and gray I guess my choices are all just too similar.

I think I need to pm you for some stocking help

 

[lucky62]

Do you have any plants in the tank , IMO , live plants help bring out the color in , well at least my fish ........

 

[Elisabeth83]

I don't have any live plants in the tank because I don't have good lighting and no Co2 either so they just die on me. I do have a couple live plants in one of my smaller tanks and one of them is doing extreamly well and growing a lot. I'm not sure what it is. I think I'll get a few more of them and put them in some of my other tanks.

In the 55 gallon it's an assortment of fake plants and some silk ones. It's got sand with a nice big piece of bogwood, claypot and big river stones too.

I don't think it's the lack of plants I just think the shaoling fish I chose (diamond tetra) they are too plain. I was thinking maybe I should of got some black phantom tetras instead or something

I added 7 cherry barbs yesterday and that has made it look 10 times better already. All is not lost. In getting rid of the mollies I've managed to re-arrange some fish and have freed up my 28 gallon and the 30 gallon where the mollies were. So far in the 30 gallon I have 6 white clouds, 2 celebes halfbeaks and 10 pearl rasboras. I've moved the macmaster dwarf cichlid into there as well so now that tank is pretty much stocked. I might move the diamond tetras into the 28 gallon and get the black phantom tetras or something blackish for the 55 as now I've got my red in the cherry barbs.

I'm trying to plan things out first before moving any fish. I don't want to stress them too much. I'll take some pix of my 55 today so you can see how it looks. You probably wont be able to spot any of the fish besides the cherry barbs as everything else looks gray

 

[Elisabeth83]

Here I just took a pic of the 55

Are you thinking to yourself where are all the fish?? doesn't that always happen when you take pictures your fish seem to disappear?

The layout I'm still working on...most of the time I am never satisfied. I had the pot under the wood but just changed it but I'm thinking it would look better moved back. Anyways......

 

[jollysue]

I see a couple fish. Not sure what they are.

When I try to get a picture of a fish it's either blury from zooming too far or not close enough. I have a moderately good camera too. The fish spot it and zip! they're gone.

Anyway nice looking set up. The pot looks nice, but will the fish take to it out in the open there?

 

[Elisabeth83]

The fish are

4 pearl gouramis
2 german blue rams
8 diamond tetras
6 cherry barbs



I have to take about 60 pics to get a couple good ones so don't feel bad I went to my lfs and got 4 live plants (I asked if I could pay next week and the guy I know said sure ) So I got 2 kinds of swords and 2 other ones called Nomaphila stricta thai they are the only ones I've managed to keep alive and healthy in normal low lighting.

I re-arranged the tank again and moved the pot back a bit and put some plants in front of it. The only fish who take interest in it are the gouramis They looks like big dogs in a doghouse

anyways heres the way it looks now. Mind you it's always changing I'm never fully happy with the way my tanks look. Now some of the members with planted tanks those are ones I'd be happy with. One day

 

[jollysue]

You take nice pics, and I see some bloches that may be fish

I like the swords and the other little plants too. They add nice variety. I think the grassy plant in front of the pot is a good move. The guys that like caves like to peek aroind and be a little hidden I think. I have a big broken artificial cave in my 12 usg. Everyone goes in there and gets out of the light, even the diamond heads.

You may have heard I got a big Amazon Sword. My cockatoos liked to hide in a broken cave I used to weight it down. They would poke out to grab food. It was half way up in mid tank level. I planted the sword (sort of--the substrate's not deep enough to cover) so I removed the cave, I'm trying to figure out how I can have some high caves in the big plants for these guys.