Kissing gourami compatibility?

[OceanMaiden]

Will a pink kissing gourami and dwarf flame gourami get along with a cherry shrimp? Will the cherry shrimp filter feed and clean the tank? The tank size is 29 gallons and its heavily planted. The shrimp should love the plants. Suggestions?

 

[hc8719]

i have four pink kissing gourami with 3 moonlight gourami, and they get along, i know dwarf gourami's can be jerks though, picking at things.

depending on the size of your shrimp, the fish should leave him alone, (small shrimp dont make it in my tank, a shrimp has to be almost full grown to survive, or i find bodies)

cherry shrimp are smaller than ghosts i thought, so you might have some trouble, also shrimps are a scavanger, so your going to need more than 1 to clean up a 29 gal (and i think they live living with more than one shrimp)

btw my kissers are only 2 inches, i dunno if yours are bigger, otherwise a 6" kisser might not hessitate to snack on a shrimp

 

[JustOneMore20]

Keep in mind that Kissing gouramis can get up to 12 inches, so a 29g won't be a good permanent home.

I bet on the kissing gourami, when its mouth is big enough, eating the shrimp.

 

[hc8719]

kissing gourami "can" get up to 12" big in the wild, they rarely exceed 5"-6" in an aquarium

i keep my 2 inchers on a frozen bloodworms, flakes, and all they can eat cucumbers, and ive barely noticed a diff in size, im sure they kissing gourami can live quite awhile in a 29 gal,

btw though kissers are a community fish, although they dont school they are much more happier to be with some of their own kind

are they even gourami really, why dont they have those feelers?

 

[OceanMaiden]

I dont know why they they dont have the feelers, but they are abantoids and do come to the surface for air. I got my kissing fish on july 3rd and it was smaller than the full grown 4 inch dwarf flame gourami, it is now the 24th an it is longer and taller than the flame gourami. Id say shes about 5.2 inches now so shes almost her full grown captivity size I suppose. She was only 2 inches to start with! I feed her plenty of algea discs, shrimp pellets and flakes. She is always kissing the red flame, but it dosnt seem to be aggressive. The flame follows her everywhere, I think he loves her. Seeing how they like each other so much and given their colors and sizes in relation to each other, I named her princess peach and him mario. I also have a big fat mystery snail roving about in the tank for the time being to help clean. The gourami act as if it doent even exist, they only have eyes for each other. What kind of freshwater shrimp get large enough to not be considered a snack like the lil ghost shrimp?
Bamboo shrimp maybe or a flower shrimp? I am still wanting to put a cleanup shrimp in there, The tank is full of plants and the gourami are fed often so I dont think theyd bother a fairly big shrimp. Now I just need a list of giant freshwater shrimp. Can anyone out there suggest a few to me ? Do you know of any hc?

 

[hc8719]

are you saying your kissing gourami grew 3" in 21 days

someone must have switched you fish...

or you just have them on steroids

 

[OceanMaiden]

Here is what I think the fish was from petco, you all know how well they do or should I say dont feed their fish. She may very well have been older than she looked , but her growth was stunted due to innsufficient nutrients. They were feeding flake food only, and a kissing gourami must have algea discs or plant matter nutrients in order to grow properly. So when I got her and she had almost a full month of good nutrition, it has sent her into a growth spurt, and shes growing like a weed. I'm feeding her Hikari brand algea discs, plus shrimp pellets freeze dried blood worms, tubifex worms, and flake food so she has a wholesome varied diet as well as the algea. So yes she did grow about 3" in 21 days. The growth rate floored me too because none of my other fish have grown that much so fast. Her growth was probably stunted from the size of tank they had her in too. She was in a 10 gal with Im guessing about 30 other fish. So I rescued her and the 4" flame at the same time from that cramped prison. She's most likely just as old as he is, and hes an adult fully grown. Petco makes me sick sometimes. Its not always a bad place to shop, some of their employees actually take good care of the fish. Its just when they get irresponsible ignorant people working that there is a problem. sigh*..... Anyway as soon as I figure out what Big shrimp I can get, I will be gettting it from aa little mom and pop owned shop I found. They take excellent care of all their animals, and they even have a good variety of rarer fish too! They call their shop travelers gazebo. Now I just need shrimp people to name off big fat shrimp for me so I know what to get. Thanks for all your help so far everybody!

 

[hc8719]

the biggest fw shrimp you'll find is probaby the bamboo shrimp, they get up to 3"-5"

heres a link to them
http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.html

and check out petshrimp.com for a variety of other shrimp

 

[Pleco]

the biggest fw shrimp you'll find is probaby the bamboo shrimp, they get up to 3"-5"

heres a link to them
http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.html

and check out petshrimp.com for a variety of other shrimp

I believe the Giant African Filter Shrimp gets bigger than that, and it is purely FW, not brackish.

-Pleco

 

[Blazeherd2306]

I had one before in my 55 gal that grew to be about 7" before it died and even then, it looked too big for my 55.

I have also seen a 9-10" kissing gourami at my LFS, so I agree that you should find it a larger tank or bring it back to your LFS.

 

[OceanMaiden]

Thanks for the help everybody, If my kissing fish gets much bigger I will sell her to the travelers gazebo. Then I guess I could put a few more dwarf gourami in the tank with the snail and the shrimp, would this be ok for a 29 gal tank?