another 55 gallon stocking thread, with partial stocking list!

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Dr.Who

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
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Location
Ellensburg, WA
Hey all, so after a lot of research and all the wonderful help from people in the chat room we've put together a partial stocking list for once our 55 gallon finishes cycling.

Our plans were to try and get female gouramis and female rams to try and lessen the aggression level.

Since the gourami is related to the betta we were hoping that the 2 gourami would get along. With plans to add the gourami, then the rams (either at the same time or seperately) while mixing up the aquascape to help them re establish territories and minimize aggression. Currently we are working on an aquascape that would add breaks in line of sight just to help things even calmer.

Now we also heard of some people who kept angels in that sort of mix as well, any thoughts on that? I know the tetras can be kinda nippy but the ones we have currently seem pretty docile.
We would love to hear anyones personal experience about keeping gouramis and rams together!
 

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Hello Dr. Who ((I absolutely love that show!))

I have a 55 gallon fish tank, in which I have 2 Pearl Gouramis, and 2 Angelfish. The Gouramis are VERY peaceful, and will hang out together, as well as apart. My angelfish sometimes pick on my Gourami, chasing them, but the Gourami get away, and hide for a bit, then continue on their way.

One suggestion I have, is that if you get Gourami, and Angelfish, make sure you have a place for the Gourami to hide if they ever feel threatened. The Angelfish enjoy having live plants.

Other breeds of Gourami may be different, since I have the Pearl Gourami, but mine all seem to get along just fine.

I also have 2 rams, a male and a female. ((though one of my rams disappeared....)) and they get along well with the others.

I have Rainbow Bassmatis to keep with my angels... In general, I've always had bad luck with Tetras, with them attacking all my fish. The Bossmatis are bigger, and a little more expensive, but they can be beautiful, peaceful fish.

I hope this has answered your question.


Also, for a 55 Gallon, I'd recommend only 2 angels, as they can be aggressive, if not given enough territory.

Hope this helps!

Sarah
 
Thanks for all the input! Problem is that the young angels we have now (3) were sold to us early in on by a less then knowledgeable pet store for our 29g... but they are really peaceful and we haven't had any problems with interactions between them and our tetras, danios, cories or any of the other fish we've kept with them. we're still working on finishing up the aquascape of the 55 but so far plenty of hidey spots and a big piece of driftwood, that's currently soaking.

Another thought we've been having is just upgrading our 29 to a 40 breeder once the angels get bigger (and we have some more money).

What kind of rams do you have? whats your 55 look like? we're trying to figure out some more ideas on how to break up the line of sight in the tank.
 
If you only had the angels in the 40 gallon breeder, and a few smaller fish, that would work, but you can't put too much, for fear of over-stocking.

Well, my tank, I have a log on one side of the tank, and another, smaller on the other side. Then in the middle I have a smaller plant. Unfortunately my other plants, long, stringy type... don't remember the name, floated to the surface. So there really isn't anything for blocking views of each other... except the Gouramis like to hide up in my plants. The Angel fish roam the whole tank, top, middle, bottom, the Gouramis stay at the top.
 
Yah that's kind of what we were thinking. Keeping the angels and some smaller fish in the 40 and doing that tank around the angels primarily.
 
If that's the case, then I believe you could do that... I'm not 100% positive, as I"ve not tried it....

Make sure there is enough room for the angels, and not many other fish... as they are Cychlids, and can get very aggressive to other fish if they don't have territory.

Mine tent to be that way with fish in the 55 gallon. xP
 
Yah a lot of the other sites I've seen and the LFS claim that angels are completly non aggressive... but from what I've noticed all sorts of fish, even peaceful ones, can be aggressive depending on there personality just like people.

Thankfully we've seen no fin nippind or lip locking for dominance between our Angels. This week we're working on trying to figure out the genders because it almost seems like we have 2 females (sisters) and 1 male. And everyone seems happy and peaceful! Just keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way when they're fully grown.

Did yours become more aggressive over time?
 
It could be, you have two females, or a male and female. I believe I have two females, and they get along perfectly with each other, but they're the guard dogs of the tank, and like to boss the other fish around, though we've had no injuries...

All cichlyds have some aggression, but the angels are more semi-aggresive, more peaceful than other cichlids.

Over the last few months, they've become more like watch-dogs, and it really depends on if they're hungry or not. i can't say mine are very aggressive, because they've never hurt anyone else, but they're on the top of the pecking order if you wanna call it that.
 
Well we have 3, two black white gold coloured ones and a larger silvery blue. When it comes time for feeding they would be at the top of the pecking order except they're much slower then the glofish. Lol

Angels definetly seem to love the attention though. I was trying to take pictures of them and the sisters were swimming around playing and being all "look at me!" While our blue one would not stop facing the camera, ended up having to be on one side of the tank and hold the camera around the side lol.
 
I think female rams fight with each other. I would get a pair. I had a pair of german blue rams with Gouramis and I saw no aggression problems. But since my male died and went to get another one , I noticed the pet store sold me another female. Then they do fight a litlle.
 
Yes, my rams were a pare as well. Good point. I think my Gouramis are a male and female, one of the ones that my LFS sold me, had died there, so I only got 2, so instead of 2f 1m i think i got 1m 1g.
 
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