Stocking A 56 Gallon Column

[rlhirth]

so we have as said in the title a cycles 56 gallon column that used to house my clown knife but when i moved and couldnt take the tank with me from my parents house i had to rehome him...

well i told my sister she could use to tank if she would like sence it is still cycled... and i introduced her to gouramis and she kinda fell for them...

so she wanted to know if she can keep just gouramis?
she really likes the Opaline and dwarfs! and i have a store that will order femals if we ask...

if so what would you stock a 56 gallon with?

if not what gouramis and then what else?

here is how the tank sits now... i was thinking of having a try at live plants... (been having luck with a 5 gallon and a 10 gallon) but either way it needs a new scape...

its a little cluttered right now but my juvile knife liked the cover..

 

[MrNiceGuy]

so we have as said in the title a cycles 56 gallon column that used to house my clown knife but when i moved and couldnt take the tank with me from my parents house i had to rehome him...

well i told my sister she could use to tank if she would like sence it is still cycled... and i introduced her to gouramis and she kinda fell for them...

so she wanted to know if she can keep just gouramis?
she really likes the Opaline and dwarfs! and i have a store that will order femals if we ask...

if so what would you stock a 56 gallon with?

if not what gouramis and then what else?

here is how the tank sits now... i was thinking of having a try at live plants... (been having luck with a 5 gallon and a 10 gallon) but either way it needs a new scape...

its a little cluttered right now but my juvile knife liked the cover..

mixing opaline and dwarf gouramis is probably not a great idea. dwarfs will be dominated and if not killed, they'll live a stressed life of hiding.

the opaline gourami is a color morph of the 3-spot gourami (sometimes just called the blue gourami). 3 spot gouramis are up there with the most aggressive of gouramis. even the females can be nasty at times.

i think you'd need to choose between opalines and dwarfs and then go from there. you could try something like 3 opalines (1 male, 2 female) with a variety of semi-aggressive tankmates... or you could try 20 male dwarf gouramis (might not be a good idea, but i hear they give up on being territorial when theyre in big numbers). or you could go for 3 male dwarf gouramis (1 of each color strain) and surround them with peaceful tankmates.

 

[Gourami123]

yeah only keep one species of gourami in a tank with females outnumbering males
gouramis are perfect tank mates for almost every non aggresive species
that requires the same water conditions

 

[MrNiceGuy]

gouramis are perfect tank mates for almost every non aggresive species

i think that might be an overstatement. i'd take caution in putting any of the more aggressive gouramis (like 3-spots or paradise fish) in with non-aggressive fish. I'm not saying it can't work, but there have been countless reports of the gouramis getting nasty.