Which Ones Go Together

[demonmagus]

I want to set up an indian biotope, and am doing a planted juwel 240

I want most of the inhabitants to be gouramies, will they live together?

 

[sylvia]

Depends on the gouramies... I'm always saying this, 'gourami' is a very general term - it includes the familiar trichogaster and colisa species, the giant osphronemus species that get to 30", the tiny trichopsis sparkling gouramies, tiny licorice gouramies, betta species of all shapes and sizes, fragile chocolate gouramies and aggressive paradisefish and many, many more. Which ones were you considering?

240 litres is it? That's about 60 gallons and could make a very nice gourami set-up. Putting all modesty aside, how confident do you feel about keeping gouramies and how much effort are you prepaired to put into this? Are there any other species you know you'll be getting (besides gouramies)?

Basicaly, there are various beautiful but extremely fragile species that would make wonderful additions - things like sphaerichthys vaillanti for example. http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...?article_id=322 (a small, but pretty, picture).

If you feel you'd rather stick to hardier species, there are still plenty of stunning choices and, as they are more forgiving and more adaptable, are the way to go if you have other fish species planned that won't quite work in a specalised tank. Things like the stunning pearl gourami, croaking gouramies, sparkling gouramies, honey, thick-lipped and banded gouramies - and several other more common, relatively peaceful species - would fit into this category.

If you are interested in wild-type bettas (or, indeed, betta splendens), they are an option also.

One thing I can tell you is that it' best to go for a maximum of around 6 top-dwelling medium-sized gouramies or around 7-9 of a smaller top-dwelling species plus some mid-dwelling species for the middle layers. Unfortunately, there's not much you can get as far as bottom-dwelling gouramies go (ctenopomas/microctenopomas would fit the bill but are african) so a few non-gourami bottom-dwellers plus a mid-schooling species would make nice additions to balance out the tank. Perhaps a pair of some kind of dwarf cichlid or a similar bottom-dwelling, center-piece type fish could also be included.

Like I said though, you need to provide a little more info. What exactly did you imagine yu'd be doing with this tank and what sort of prefference do you have as far as the gouramies go and, of course, any non-gourami tankmates?

edit: A while ago, I could have sworn I'd replied to someone with a long list of all sorts of gouramies. I can't find the thread now so I'll give you this one instead: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=119635 I only wrote about top-dwelling species and was taking into acount this person's other fish so it won't all apply to you but, at least, it can give you some idea of a few of the possibilities. if you want to see what all those fish look like, check teh pinned topics, the fish index and, of course, www.google.com !

 

[demonmagus]

other inhabitants will be

pair (or trio) of peacock gudgeons

cories: 6 of them

maybe a BN plec


and hopefully some smaller gouramies, lots of colour would be good

I know that these aren't indian, but th e gouramies are so...

about the confidence, not very confident BUT i would put effort into keeping them

 

[sylvia]

My suggestiong would be 4-6 banded gouramies (colisa fasciata). Prefferably 1-2 males, the rest females - make sure females outnumber males. Coincidentaly, they are also known as 'Indian' gouramies. And, a bunch of, say 7-8, croaking gouramies (trichopsis vittatus) - prefferably 1-3 males and several females. Croakers aren't brightly colored but have stunning blue eyes and spend more time in the middle area of the tank. I couldn't find any pictures that show the eye color but perhaps the member's pictures section has some photos that do. browse that - i seem tor ecall seeing a pic of this type at some time.

With those and the fish you have planned already, perhaps a school of 6-7 small rasboras would also be a nice addition - plus they fit the bio-tope theme. I'd personaly go for harlequins because they are such excellent schoolers.

Note that, because of the number of gouramies and, especialy for the croakers, a heavily planted tank is best. You'll find they look brighter and are less shy as well.

Colisa fasciata: http/membres.lycos.fr/aqua5/aquariophili...sa_fasciata.php?
http/www.aquanovel.com/fasciatus.htm
http/www.akvariumas.lt/zuvys/belontiidae...asciata_big.jpg

trichopsis vittatus: http/www.igl-home.de/warumlabyrinther.html (right)
http/www.guppiesforyuppies.co.za/contain...prod_code=G0139
http/www.popular-freshwater-tropical-fis...is_vittatus.htm (a drawing that does not do them justice)

Let me know if you had something else in mind - these fish are only a couple of the multitude of species (obviously) that you have at your disposal. It would be very easy to replace the banded gouramies with pearls for example - or the croakers with sparklers.

 

[demonmagus]

thanks for the info

i'll try and find more info on what I want

 

[demonmagus]

I dont like the look of these: trichopsis vittatus

Any other suggestions?

Pearls look alright and are there any larger gouramies (but not giant! )

 

[sylvia]

Larger gouramies include snakeskins, kissing gouramies and moonlights.

Moonlights are the most peaceful of the three and you could keep 5 or so (1 male with several females prefferably). This is the best of the three to place in a community set-up and can be very beautiful when kept in good lighting, where they appear bright silver with a purple tint and bright red/orange (for males) or yellow (females) ventral fins and eyes. Moonlights can also safely be mixed with other top-dwelling species - such as pearls or banded gouramies.

Kissers grow to 9" (sometimes more) so you should stick with a maximum of 3 in a 60 gallon and avoid any small fish that could get eaten. You can't sex kissers unless they breed so no need to worry about that. If you want to keep more, balloon kissers (a variety of the normal kissing gourami) stay at around 6-8" so keeping 4 would be alright - best not to risk any mroe than that though as you never know quite how large they'll be getting.

Snakeskins get to the same sort of size as kissers. They are more aggressive than moonlights and, arguably,more aggressive compared to kissers as well. However, they are quite tolerant of non-gourami species when compared to kissing gouramies. With these, it's best to stick with females only and get 4 to even out aggression between them.

You say you don't like the croaking gouramies. Well, the appeal from them, I suppose, is less to do with bright colors and more to do with subtle fin shapes and their croaking ability. Unfortunately, because you seem to be looking for quite hardy, sturdy species, the mid-dwelling gourami choices are limmited...

I haven't run out of ideas yet though! What do you think of these?

pseudosphronemus cupanus: http/www.jjphoto.dk/fish_archive/aquariu...mus_cupanus.htm

pseudosphronemus dayi: http/www.jjphoto.dk/fish_archive/aquariu...onemus_dayi.htm
http/www.akwarium.host.sk/ryby_okonioksz...omenus_dayi.php

These spiketailed paradisefish are not the hardiest fish on the planet but they are reasonable. They are generaly peaceful fish and it's best to avoid anything particularly boisterous. They grow to about 3" and would do best in a group of 5 with one male and several females.

Moonlight: http/www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_moonlight.php
Snakeskin: http/www.akwarium.host.sk/ryby_okonioksz..._pectoralis.php
Kissing gourami: http/www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_kissing.php

These aren't the best pics... Again, I suggest searching the member's aquarium pics section...

 

[demonmagus]

thanks for all the help, I like the look of the rainbow fish you showed me, and also the moonlights, would I be able to keep these, alll the rest of my fish, 3 honey gouramies and some of those indians in my tank?

Also, what if I upgraded to a 96 gallon, would they be alright then?

 

[sylvia]

What rainbowfish?

In a 96 gallon, a trio of honey gouramies, a trio of indian gouramies and a handful of honeys could work but the honeys are much smaller than the others so it may be better to skip them. The moonlights and indians are deffinately fine though - and the honeys , if you skipped the moonlights, should also be ok with the indians.

If by 'rainbowfish' you meant the spiketailed paradisefish, either of the two species (not both - just choose one) woudl do fine in a trio. If you want more, 2-3 males with 5-7 females is ok but the males can fight so this sort of combination is best reserved for the larger tank, provided you offer lots of hiding places.

These fish would be fine with the cories, peacock gudgeons and bristlenose you were considering as well.