Small schooling fish suggestion/Gourami compatability

[eah]

I have a large blue Gourami in my 55 gallon tank. He's not very aggressive, and gets along well with the male betta I have in the tank with him. I recently re-homed my 10 serpae tetras because they started picking on my cories. I am considering replacing them with a school of much smaller and more peaceful fish. I have two questions:

1. Is there a possibility that my gourami will eat the new fish? 8O
2. What would you suggest for a very small schooling fish -- I'd like fish that will tightly school. Some that I've been considering are neon tetras and harlequin rasboras.

Here's the current stocking list of the tank:
1 male blue gourami
1 male betta
2 female platies
6 peppered corydoras (I plan to bump this up to nine)
1 rubberlip pleco
3 ottos

 

[WaterPond]

i would go with the harlequins. THey get a little bigger than neons and have a different body shape that woulden't fit in the gourami's mouth. They school very tightly aswell. Go with them, i think that would be a nice mix.

 

[JustOneMore20]

If you could find full grown neons, you wouldn't have a problem adding them in with the blue. But, most of the time all you can find is really small neons (atleast around here). Also, they aren't the tightest schoolers...I have 7 in my 29g with a blue gourami and they could care less about their group.

Another option, besides the Harlies, would be Rummynose tetras. If you can find them, they are the best schoolers I've seen. My Harlies don't school that tightly, but I only have 6. Maybe a bigger group would school tighter, I dunno. Definitely consider the Rummies though, if you can find them. A school of 10 would be awesome.

If you can't find them though, or don't want them, the Harlies would be a better choice than the neons. Also, they are much more bolder in color IMO. I think mine are beautiful.

 

[exodus]

In my 55 I have a school of 8 tiger barbs and 8 neons - the constant motion of the tigers keeps the neons in a nice, tight school. If they don't feel threatened or are by themselves then I've noticed they'll tend to hang out wherever they please.

 

[eah]

At this point, I'm considering leaving the tank at its current stocking level after the eventual addition of the two peppered cories I just put into my QT tank yesterday. I wish there was a way to know if they would *actually school* before I go through the hassel of buying them and QTing them for a few weeks.

Have others also had good experience with rummynose tetras being tight schoolers? I do like the look of them, I just don't want to add a school of fish unless I am confident that they will actually school.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I have 6 Rummynose tetras and they are tight schoolers. Even when I had 4, they always stuck together and schooled tightly. A big school of them would look awesome.

 

[hc8719]

i think, should they get hungy enough, my biggest moonlight gourami is big enough to eat my smallest neon, or even my BGK could eat a neon. i dont think well fed fish (3x for gouramis) bother other fish so much.

 

[severum mama]

I agree that rummynose tetras are tight schoolers, much more so than my other schooling fish. They stay smaller than serpaes, so you could add a school of 10-12. It's a good thing you have a QT though, as they are difficult to acclimate and seem to be prone to ich IMO. Mine are tank-bred and didn't have any problems acclimating, but others have had problems with them.

 

[eah]

Thanks for the helpful advice everyone. I'm think I'm going to leave things sit for a while. I kind of like the look of a less busy tank. Here's a pretty recent photo of it in case anyone is interested: