Honey Gourami vs Royal Gourami?

[jenelle]

I've got my 45 gallon cycled and planted and ready for some more fish! Yay!

I have been trying to track down "honey gourami" as I've been told that this is a community friendly fish; however, the LFS only has "royal gourami" coming in next week. I've been googling it and I can't quite figure out the difference between these fish in terms of behaviour / compatibility.

My tank will have 1 or 2 platy, harlequin rasboras, rummy nose tetras, julii cories, otos, 2 german blue rams and shrimp.

I could get honey gourami at PetSmart, but I'm a little nervous about buying fish there.

Is a Royal Gourami peaceful / compatible or should I continue to search for honey gourami?

Whichever I buy, should I be getting one solo male, or 1 male and two female, or ??

 

[jenelle]

BTW, here's my newly planted tank. So excited to add inhabitants.


Building 45 g community planted

 

[azmodan]

Personally I'd get a honey as I've always found them to be extremely peaceful and hardy. I also like their bright yellow and orange colors (once they've grown comfortable in your tank) in contrast to many other freshwater fish. A dwarf (which I believe a royal is) would likely work fine too though, they are just a bit more prone to random poor health (dwarf gourami disease) and sometimes aggressive behavior. I would just stick to one as females are not very common since they are quite dull colored compared to males.

Tank looks good so far! What sort of lighting do you have? Just a note: gouramis show the best color when they have lots of cover and shade from bright light. They're very fond of floating plants since they spend a lot of time near the surface.

 

[jenelle]

Thanks for the info. I think I will pursue a honey gourami as you suggest as I don't relish the thought of any aggressive behaviour.

I will need to work on plant cover. I have one of those fancy fluval LED full spectrum lights. (It cost me a small fortune). I think it was worth it because it makes the tank look so beautiful. However, there isn't much shelter for a honey gourami yet!


Building 45 g community planted

 

[Coursair]

FYI your julii will almost certainly be Corydoras trilineatus. Stores mislabel them constantly
http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/c_trilineatus.htm

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[jenelle]

Yay! I located 2 honey gourami who are now in my tank. I get it now: honey gouramis are smaller than the dwarf gouramis. I think that's what confused me because I thought it would be vice-versa.

Also - I took a close look at my three supposed "julii", and I think you are right that I actually have Corydoras trilineatus rather than julii. That's a surprise. Will they grow to the same size? I was planning to get 2 more, so now I'm assuming I should get 2 more trilineatus.

 

[Coursair]

Yay! I located 2 honey gourami who are now in my tank. I get it now: honey gouramis are smaller than the dwarf gouramis. I think that's what confused me because I thought it would be vice-versa.

Also - I took a close look at my three supposed "julii", and I think you are right that I actually have Corydoras trilineatus rather than julii. That's a surprise. Will they grow to the same size? I was planning to get 2 more, so now I'm assuming I should get 2 more trilineatus.

If you read the link I provided at the left it gives C trilineatus stats.
Adult size is about 2.5" I believe they are a bit bigger than julii

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