can you mix gouramis & angels?? please tell your experie

[Bubble_B0y]

I've been reading many articles on the internet, and some say gouramis and angels are compatible, and others say they are not.

based on your experiences, have you had success or not??

 

[SkullJug]

Absolutely. I have had two angels with my gouramis for many years - No problems. They totally ignore each other and IMHO are a great combination. They both have a lot of personality but act completely differently so they make a great contrast in tank behaviours.

 

[Laser]

In my experience male gouramis just hate each other, they don't have much to say or do with another species. Pearl Gouramis are one of my favorite fish and for the most part they are peaceful... except for that one time I had a male and a female and the male became agressive to everyone in the tank. I think he died of over-exaustion. What I would do is give it a try and watch them closely and see how it works out.

 

[Zagz]

I have 3 opaline gourami's in with my two mature angelfish and no problems whatsoever. Trial and error is key as each fish has a different personality.

 

[SkullJug]

In my experience male gouramis just hate each other, they don't have much to say or do with another species. Pearl Gouramis are one of my favorite fish and for the most part they are peaceful... except for that one time I had a male and a female and the male became agressive to everyone in the tank. I think he died of over-exaustion. What I would do is give it a try and watch them closely and see how it works out.

There are a few tricks I have leart with Gourami's, The have a pecking order just like dogs. The alpha gourami will spend almost all his time at the top of the tank, and will only really attack the others when they attempt to get near the top of the tank. To short circuit this you need to

(A) Make sure that food submerges so that the less dominant gouramis don't go near the surface.
(B) Keep the tank well oxygenated so that the fish do not need to hang around the top of the tank and
(C) Grow some tall plants around the tank and have lots of high bushes that the smaller gouramis can hide in.

A few other things that are really important is to try to get all your gouramis at the same time, so they are pretty relative in size. Any new gourami I get spends 3 or 4 months in quarentine getting ready for the main tank (I play them the rocky montage every day too ) And make sure that the fish have at least 6 hours of really, really dark night period. All gouramis rest in the dark and it gives them all a chance for a breather.

These things will not solve or your aggresion problems, but will definately calm things down.

 

[BrianNY]

My experiences have been a little different. I had a pair of giant gouramis which are among the most peaceful, in a 55g with 2 adult veiltail angels. For 6 months there was peace and harmony. Once the aggression began it was relentless. The gouramis had to be removed or they would have killed the angels.

 

[SkullJug]

I had a pair of giant gouramis which are among the most peaceful, in a 55g with 2 adult veiltail angels.

2 giant gouramis in a 55g tank!!!!! Giant gouramis grow to 60cms long!!!! I have never kept giant gouramis before and can;t comment on their behaviour. But the ones that are being discussed here (the little ones) are fine to keep with Angels.

 

[BrianNY]

That's not the gourami I was referring to SkullJug. It's this one:

http://www.fish2u.com/giantgourami.html

The problem with common names are multiple ones are used for different fish. Sorry for the ambiguity.

 

[Acer]

i think i was reading something @ the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago about how the other GIANT GOURAMIS were kept under pig stalls in Cambodia or somewhere in Asia &
fed anything that goes thru the floor board cracks....

 

[Big C]

I have a gold gourami who used to be the king of the 30 g. Then I introduced a tinny blushed coy angel that grew and grew to be as big as the gold gourami. They both rule the 75 g now, but they do not bother each other.

Before changing the angel, the gourami and the other fish from the 30 to the 75 g, I added 2 dwarf flame gouramis to the big tank and let them settle in for a few weeks. Once They were all together the bullying started from the big goldie to the dwarf.

One of the dwarf died, after a few month. I think it must have been aggression because all the other fish were fine. The other dwarf is always hiding. But the aggressor is always the gold gourami, the angel is an "angel"!

 

[SkullJug]

That's not the gourami I was referring to SkullJug. It's this one:

http://www.fish2u.com/giantgourami.html

The problem with common names are multiple ones are used for different fish. Sorry for the ambiguity.

Hey cool, I've never seen on of them before!!! Looks like a dwarf gourami but cooler!

Sorry about my comments, I didn't now there were two types of giant gourami!

Anyone know if these are available in Australia??

 

[RoK]

Colisa fasciata (AKA banded gouramis) are the ones Brian was talking about. Some people call them giant gouramis because they look similar to the dwarf gouramis but get bigger.