Gourami question

[deli_conker]

Okay, so I'm getting a new 75 gal tank for my cichlids and my 55 gal is going to be a nice peaceful tank. For a while I wasn't sure what I wanted to put in it. Then I went to the fish store and saw a tank with gouramis and neons etc...

So far I want...

8-12 cardinal or neon tetras
6-10 cory cats (not sure of what type yet)
6-12 red phantom tetras

I also wanted to put in a few (two or three) gouramis, but don't know a whole lot about them. From the research I've done, these are the ones I like in order of how much I like them...

pearl gourami
dwarf gourami
chocolate gourami
honey gourami
licorice gourami

(why are most named after food?)

If anybody has kept a combination of these, I would like to hear advice and experiences with them.

 

[OneFishTwoFish]

I recently added 2 Dwarf neon Blues and 10 Cardinal Tetras. They seem to get along great. I lost 3 of the Cardinals though. My LFS says that they are notoriously bad travellers and often don't make the transition very well.

As to the other suggested fish I don't have a whole lot of experience with them. I have heard that some Gourami males get pretty territorial but it sounds like you have some space for them to spread out.

The only other thing I would mention is to have some plants for them to hide/swim/play in. I know mine just love to lay low with in the plants.

The only thing I wish is that my store actually carried the female dwarf too. Maybe they'll get some in one day, or I'll actually break down and buy some online.

 

[Christmasfish]

Gourami don't usually bother smaller tetras..and when they do..tetras lkeave em in the dust if there is space and hiding.
larger tetras are the type that also have high bodies and may attract aggression form less social species.

Fast and dirty stats:

pearl gourami.......true pearl are larger, shoal loosely, need company
the blue gourami morph is also large and likes company

dwarf gourami....semiaggrasives..need to be in a larger group or they pair off and get territorial..but are shy fish(paradox). A male can be kept alone without a health impact but prefer comapny. lso like softer water than most labyrinths.

chocolate gourami...more sensitive, reputed faders, not esily tank bred as yet. Prefer aquaria that is a mnimumof 82 (they like it around 84-86)
VERY peaceful easily stressed. Not good with busy or aggressive tankmates

honey gourami..is a color morph dwarf?
or colisa chuna? who also likes water to be softer and acidic.

licorice gourami.... is a color morph..but I am not sure whose. Darn wheres the books when ya need em?

(why are most named after food?)
Maybe because most species are kept as market fish?

My female dwarf was amiable enough.. My male is Wild and also a PITA. He lives in a divideed tank with bettas.
My croakers are fine with botia. But most of my labyrinth are the single top/mid dwellers of my tanks.

:edit :my cut and paste left a participal dangling off the wrong sentence

 

[Fruitbat]

Licorice gourami is actually Parosphromenus deissneri, a completely different genus and species from the other gouramis you've listed. The Honey Dwarf Gourami is Colisa sota and isn't a color morph. The Chocolate Gourami is Sphaerichthys osphromenoides, a different genus yet again. Christmasfish's Croaking Gouramis are Trichopsissp. (probably vittatus because it is the most commonly seen member of this genus).

As for your list and compatibility with Cardinal Tetras...I've kept all of the genera and species you mention EXCEPT the Licorice Gourami (wish I could find some of those around here) in community tanks, mostly with Rasbora species and not had any problems. In fact, I have Cosby Blue Gouramis, Trichogaster trichopterus in my 26 gallon right now with Rasbora borapetensis and haven't witnessed any kind of aggression. Christmasfish is correct in saying that male Dwarf Gouramis (Colisa lalia) can get aggressive but this is normally toward other Dwarf Gouramis or other similar fish. If it was MY tank, I'd opt for the tetras and the Honey Dwarf or Licorice Gouramis because there won't be as big a disparity in size.

 

[AdamsZoological]

The Pearls or Chocolate would be fine, and the Dwarfs are usually ok, but I have heard cases of them being a little nippy. And personally, I think the Pearl leeri are one of the nicest looking Gouramis you can get anyway.

 

[ScottS]

Nice tank idea! I have a dozen Cardinals, 4 Corydoras and 1 Pearl Gourami. I had 2 female Pearls, but one beat on the other pretty hard, and I ended up returning the aggressor. There are zero problems in my tank, and it's only a 20. The only bad thing about the Gourami is she hangs out in the back corner and is very timid. Gouramis are hit and miss in my experience in mixing. It's not if one will pick on another, it's how bad will one pick on the other (mainly within a species).

If I could trade my Pearl for an Opaline Gourami, I think I'd try that.

 

[TankGirl]

Hit and miss is right, ScottS. There are personality issues with individuals. I have a DG that killed all tankmates in a 15-gal except cories, and another DG that did not kill but seriously intimidated all other tankmates in a 10gal. IMO give dwarfs plenty of room and you will have success. I moved the 10-gal aggressor to my 55 (see my gallery) and he hangs out almost 100% with the almost full-grown angel, and does not bother the cardinals, white clouds or serpaes. In the 10-gal with the DG the cardinals hid all of the time and would hardly come out to eat.

I have heard good things about pearls, but that is anecdotal and have no personal experience.....yet!

 

[Christmasfish]

. The Honey Dwarf Gourami is Colisa sota and isn't a color morph. ).

yeah but he said just honey gourami and that opens the field.

But I have also seen Golden gourami under honey gourami And they are waay big. They have to be the blue gourami color morph.
I've seen Silver gourami (also blue morphs) as "pearl" too.

The only ones I knew are the Yellow Honey Gourami which is colisa chuna ( I always connected chuna with yellow and chutney heh)
and is a color morph of the wild form of Colisa chuna.
I thought the wild forms my grandpa had were better looking than the solids his friends were breeding.
Sunny Honey's colisa labiosa
I never heard of the sota species...so in the dark on it. :shrug:
Prolly something found after my grandfather stopped keeping fish.
But thre are a few "hunnies " out there....


I thought licorice was the dark morph form of acrostoma chocolates. *shrugs* I am behind the times...retail is too fast for me..heh!

PS. Yep my croakers are the good ol onespots (vittatus).
I don't have the parosphromenus deissneri, but have some ocellatus

 

[Christmasfish]

Oh fast note....chocolates are sensitive fish and like warmer softer conditions than most tankmates..or you'll see why they have a reputatiuon of fading away and being hard to keep. And my lfs said very few people breed them with success.
Most stores including himself order wild caught (which is how he got the ocelot chocolates). Any harrassment and they will freak and never show their spectacular chains of aztec gold and pearl on a field of shiny cocoa.

 

[Centurion]

55g gourami tank? i have one, see my sig, works for me!

 

[deli_conker]

Thanks for all the comments. After consulting fishbase as well, I think I'm going to have a couple pearls in there and see what happens.

Now I just have to figure out what type of corys I want. A seperate thread, me thinks...