Stocking With Gouramis

[Alex1110]

Hey everyone, just wondering if this stocking sounds okay in a 3 foot tank, 18 inches wide and 18 inches tall (48 gallon?)

1 opaline gourami (male)
3 red fire gouramis (1 male, 2 female)
1 red tailed black shark
6 tiger barbs
6 gold barbs
5-6 cories

Is this overstocked? and should the opaline gourami be a female?

I know tiger barbs should be kept in groups of at least 6, but i have seen 2 types (gold and green?), so can i have three of each? (question for another forum?)

Thanks

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Not sure about the RTBS, they can be a bit nasty, personally I'd leave that out. I think as it is it's a bit overstocked, but would be fine without the RTBS.

I think barbs and gourami's are probably pretty evenly matched for agression so you should be OK there. I'm not too much of an expert with M/F gourami stocking so I'll leave that q for someone else.

 

[sylvia]

I'd skip the opaline. Three-spots (opalines being one of several color morphs) are particularly aggressive gouramies and wouldn't work with the red fire (I assume dwarf?) gouramies. They actualy do best kept alone (with no other gouramies or top-dwelling fish) or in large female-only groups where aggression is split between many individuals and without other species of gourami.

The trio of dwarfs you're proposing is perfect.

The RTBS should be fine with the gouramies but might bother the cories as they'll be competing for space in the lower levels and RTBSs are territorial.

Personaly, I'd either skip both the tiger barbs (because they are very nippy for dwarf gouramies) and RTBS or switch the dwarf gouramies for some bandeds (also known as Indian, giant or striped gouramies - use the scientific name to dientify them - Colisa fasciata). A trio of these banded gouramies would work fine (they grow to 4" however so you may want to skip the RTBS (and opaline) anyway).

The reason for this is that dwarf gouramies are very prone to disease. Usualy the disease is brought on by stress. Nippy tiger barbs and boisterous sharks do not, therefore, make ideal tankmates for these fish.

 

[jtnova13]

I have 6 dwarfs in a 60 gal 4ft tank with a rainbow shark and they do fine. I know rainbows are less aggro than rtb, but if you get a placid RTB, it might work out if you really like the fish. My tank is 24" high so there is more separation from the rainbow to the gouramis.