Pearl Gouramis

[dwarfgourami]

My Rio 240 is now doing its fishless cycle (yaayy!) and I am trying to sort out in what order to make additions. What do you reckon about pearl gouramis? Could they go in straight after the cycle or should I give them a few months (it will be in September in that case)?

 

[sylvia]

Right after the cycle, make a very large water change of about 90% with de-chlorinated water. That's to remove the high levels of nitrate that will have acumulated. Then add all the fish you're planning on getting which are quite shy or non-territorial - things like (hardier) tetras, cories etc. As long as the tank is fully cycled, they'll be fine. You could add the pearls first if you like but, due to their territoriality, they should be left until nearly last. Note, BTW, that you need to add fish within at least a day of the last 'dosage' of ammonia/fish foods (or whatever you're using to cycle) or else the good bacteria will start dying off and you'll have to cycle all over - so as soon as the cycle's complete, do the water change and go buy the first bunch of fish immediately afterwards.

If you list all the fish you're planning on (and your tank's size so that I can assess how much aggression they are likely to show - is it 60 gallons?) I'd be happy to suggest an order to add them in.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Thanks, Sylvia.
I've done fishless cycling a couple of times in the past, so think I feel quite comfortable with that part of it; just wanted reassurance on the relative hardiness of the pearls, as I've never kept these. You confirm my belief that they are tolerably hardy.
Stocking list will be: trio of pearls (1 m, 2 fs), 7 female platies (home produced virgins), pair of bristlenoses (if I can get a male/female pair), 3 or 4 black-bellied limias and a school of black neons. To this I may eventually add 4 peacock gobies (or some female guppies and stick the peacocks in the current guppy tank). As you can see, my preference is for small peaceful fish, and the pearls will have a good chance of ruling the tank. Should the limias turn out to be too fast and zippy for their liking, I can always move those to another tank.
The tank will be heavily planted: I shall be placing an order with greenline as soon as the nitrites start going down.
I make 240 ltrs 63 US gallons- but that's not allowing for displacement.

 

[sylvia]

Sounds like a lovely plan! Very interesting stocking and great combination! I'd love to see some pics when it's done.

The way I see it, the platies are the hardiest fish so you may as well put them in first. After that, I'd put in the bristlenoses (though ti doesn't realy matter when these are added) and the limias and put the neons in a little later so the tank's been running a while. Black neons are relatively hardy, as I'm shure you know, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Personaly, I wouldn't add guppies because they might get nipped by the neons and worried by the limias but they may also work. If you do go for guppies, add them right after the platies. If you go for the gobies, I'd add them right after the neons but hold off on the bristlenoises and add them after the gobies to avoid territoriality issues that could otherwise emerge. Last, put in teh pearls. You are right, they are hardy, but they are also territorial so all the mid-dwelling fish should go in first. Note that pearls shouldn't have any problems with the gobies and, most certainly, not with the bristlenoses so you can also add those two species after the pearls if you want.

As far as time scales go, I'd add them at weekly or 2-week intervals except with the neons I'd want the tank to be at least a month old and I'd give the tank some extra time after adding the bristlenoses (if they are large individuals). Also, after adding the platies, I'd personaly give it 2 weeks to make sure the cycle hasn't failed. Or, alternatively, I would add the platies 3 or 4 at a time - rather than all 7 at once (though you may as well go for all 7 as the tank should be able to support them and it's a waste of a good fishless cycle ).

Anyway, I hope that gave you some dieas at least I'm shure everything will work out fine for you and I look forward to hearing about the tank when it's finished

 

[dwarfgourami]

Thanks, sounds good. Will leave the neons until after the summer.

The other factor I might want to consider in adding fish is that the platies (and possibly female guppies) are my own babies, so ideally I would not want to put them in at the same time as or before unquarantined fish from another source. Solely for that reason, I would prefer to add the bristlenoses, gouramis and limias first and then leave it a couple of weeks before I add my babies. Alternatively, I could shift the platies first and use my current Rekord 60 as a quarantine tank, but that would make it a slow process as I would have to add fish in small batches. And 7 platies, some of them still juveniles, would not sustain much of a bacteria colony in a 63 gallon tank.

 

[sylvia]

Hmm, that may be a problem. I see what you mean but guppies and platies may be at risk from being bullied if added after the gouramies and even the limias may be a problem for them. I would suggest buying a 10 gallon for quarantine instead and using filter media from an established tank to provide an instant cycle whilst you quarantine the new fish. The other thing you could do is simply to make shure that the gouramies and limias you buy are, themselves, juveniles. that way you won't need to worry about aggression for a while.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Hmm, that may be a problem. I see what you mean but guppies and platies may be at risk from being bullied if added after the gouramies and even the limias may be a problem for them. I would suggest buying a 10 gallon for quarantine instead and using filter media from an established tank to provide an instant cycle whilst you quarantine the new fish. The other thing you could do is simply to make shure that the gouramies and limias you buy are, themselves, juveniles. that way you won't need to worry about aggression for a while.

Hmmm, more food for thought. I can't see the family agreeing to another tank, the Rio 240 I think pushed them to the limit. As for limias, getting juveniles might be difficult, the only place I know of that does them is Trimar, and they advertise them as L (presumably large, so not juveniles). But I could almost certainly get hold of juvenile gouramis; how old do they have to be to be sexable? don't want to end up with two males.

It's all very complicated, like those puzzles they do for IQ tests.

 

[sylvia]

Lol - interesting analogy

They are usualy sexable at 2" or so but it does depend on their condition.

If you did accidentaly get 2 males, it shouldn't be too much trouble to return both and replace them with a (different) male and female of the same size as the third, remianing, female fish (for hierarchy/aggression reasons). You just need to be prepaired to return both

 

[dwarfgourami]

Lol - interesting analogy

They are usualy sexable at 2" or so but it does depend on their condition.

If you did accidentaly get 2 males, it shouldn't be too much trouble to return both and replace them with a (different) male and female of the same size as the third, remianing, female fish (for hierarchy/aggression reasons). You just need to be prepaired to return both

Thanks, I'll remember that.