Would Gouramis Mix With Angels?

[Hels]

Hello!

At the moment i have a range of tanks, community and cichlids....however hopefully i shall be moving into my first house with my boyfriend and when i do...although most of my tanks will be coming with me... i would like to buy a new large tank to be a center piece in the living room...

i shall be thinking carefully about it before going ahead with anything but i hoped that the new tank would be able to encorporate angels and middle/larger sized gouramis....

so the first round of questions are

would they go together??

what size tank would i be looking at??

Many Thanks!!

Helen x

 

[nmonks]

Hello Helen,

On the whole, gouramis and angels mix well. As a family, cichlids tend to be a bit rough to mix well with labyrinth fish, but there are plenty of exceptions, and angelfish are definitely among them. Angelfish and, for example, lace gouramis both appreciate relatively high temperatures (25 C rather than 22 C), soft to neutral water chemistry, and a steady but not strong water current. Both fish reach similar sizes, eat similar foods, and neither is aggressive outside of breeding.

However, there are some combinations I wouldn't recommend. Dwarf gouramis are very sensitive to bacterial infections, and most mass produced (i.e., cheap) angelfish are raised at a commercial scale where bacterial infections are endemic. This is one reason why angelfish should not be kept with discus, and I'd say the logic holds perfectly well with dwarf gouramis too. By extension, both honey and chocolate gouramis would be a bit of a gamble when mixed with angels.

On the flip side, male blue gouramis (and yellow gouramis -- they're the same species) can become aggressive. In small tanks a mean male blue or yellow gourami can be an absolute terror. Such a fish would terrify angelfish.

Pearl and lace gouramis are both hardy and peaceful, and I'd suggest that either would make excellent companions for angelfish. Though not as common, thick-lipped gouramis and kissing gouramis could both be used, too.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Weaver]

I have pearl gourami and angels in a 50g tank and there has never been the slightest problem with them.Pearls are a really lovely,peaceful fish and tough as well.
Id agree about the opaline/gold/blue gourami-my opaline battered the living daylights out of the sailfin mollies and constantly harassed the gold gourami
Id say you cant go wrong with the pearls and have 2 in each of my bigger tanks
Btw my angels live in a tank with hard water and 7.8 ph but were born locally.

 

[Hels]

thanks for the info....

no i know its possible i'll be back in the morning with more questions!!

 

[sylvia]

A tank fo at least 55 gallons will be necessary if you want to keep angels and gouramies long term as both kinds of fish tend to occupy the same areas in the water column.

I agree about the three-spot gouramies (blue, gold, yellow, lavender, platinum, opaline and cosby all being color morphs) and about the dwarf gouramies being somewhat too small/fragile to work with angels.

However, I disagree about the pearl gouramies (note that lace, mosaic and leeri gourami are just some mroe names for this same species). They truly are beautiful and peaceful fish - my favourite in fact - but I would not realy like to risk putting them in with anything that may stress or nip at them.

Angels, true, are not the most aggressive cichlids - but they are cichlids none the less. generaly speaking, people tend to get several juveniles to begin with and let them pair off, removing the extra fish at this time. This is because it's impossible to sex young angels. However, once you have a pair, it's almost inevitable that, if healthy, they'll breed. At this time, they do become aggressive. In a 55 gallon, if all you have is 1 pair of angels and a trio of pearls, it does work - but try any more and you're risking overcrowding. Keeping a single fish isn't an option either - lone angels tend to grow into terrors.

IMO, the best choice for a 55 gallon or greater tank containing angels is the moonlight gourami. this fish gets to about 6-7", making it large enough to stand up to angels despite having a very peaceful nature. In some places pearls are reffered to as moonlights so don't confuse the two species - moonlights are trichogaster microlepis - a silver fish, sometimes tinted purple in good lighting, with orange or yellow ventral fins (the 'feelers'). The other advantage is that the lack the long fins of pearl gouramies so are less likely to get picked on or nipped and much better suited to being kept with breeding angels.

It is by no means impossible to keep angels and gouramies together - as I think everyone has made clear - but some consideration does have to be given to these fish' similarities - as well as differences - so that they do not clash and cause each other stress.

 

[Hels]

thanks for your input sylvia!

yeah that was the plan....a group of young angels to start with until a pair formed....and i'm glad you mentioned a trio of gouramis...i wasnt sure if i was looking at a pair of gourami or trio.... would a trio apply to moonlight gourami as well?? i assume 2 females, 1 male??

the tank sizes i'm looking at will be between 260-300l (65-80 US gallons i think).... i like the look of both pearl and moonlight gourami and really want to make the best choice...which would you personally go for taking into account the tank size???

also its been suggested that i look at congo tetras but with reading what was said about the levels which they would occupy in the tank ....would they not be a good idea?

thanks!!

 

[sylvia]

Yep, trios for either. if you were to go for the higher end of those gallons, you could probably even manage both species of gourami - but only just. IMO, it's safer to go for moonlights. Not just because they'll deal with angels better though - also because they grow larger so will look better in that size tank.

Having said that, if you are going to heavily plant the tank (but I mean honestly heavily), go for pearls and get 5 (1 or 2 males, the rest females) as they'll look more impressive in that sort of environment than either the angels or moonlights - or both put together - well, IMO anyway

Considering the tank size, the congo tetras should be fine as they, despite occupying the same areas and restricting the other fish, are not actualy territorial so won't provoke conflict. Be careful not to over-do it though as, by limmiting space, can cause a few problems.