Yeah i have 4 cories right now with them (i used to have 6 but 2 died
..) and they are ignored. I had opaline gouramis, gold gouramis, and pearl gouramis but they all died 2 from the barbs harrassment. Now they r with my jellybean comvict and parrot cichlid and thriving. Heres my ideal 30 gallon if barbs are a must have and so are cories.
9-11 tigers
1 convict OR jewel or BParrot OR 2 pearl gouramis.
4-6 cories.
That is pretty heavily stocked but can and will be a very good looking tank. If u have to have a gourami also, pearls are my ABSOLUTE favorite and for me where quite territorial. They will go great with barbs IMO. My opalines were idiots and just aggressive as anything. I will only keep pearls and maybe some dwarf species in the future. Again i hope this helps.