Anabantoid Aquarium

Hello all!

I have an Anabantoid biotype aquarium that I was thinking of upgrading to a 33 long over the summer.
It houses...

2x Honey Gourami (1M, 1F)
2x Croaking Gourami (1M, 1F)
1x Sparkling Gourami
1x Female betta
5x Golden Barbs

If I upgraded this to a 33 gallon long, what other types of gourami or anabantoids could I add? I want to set the sparkling Gourami up in his own 5.5 gallon black water, which I am waiting on to cycle currently.

I was thinking maybe a pearl gourami?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Gourami or other Anabantoids.

Actually, I would suggest moving the betta to the 5.5 gallon tank. Gouramis can carry several diseases that can be deadly to a betta. You shouldn't even move plants or decorations from a gourami tank to a betta tank! As soon as the other tank is cycled, I would move her.

FishFinatic77 said:

Actually, I would suggest moving the betta to the 5.5 gallon tank. Gouramis can carry several diseases that can be deadly to a betta. You shouldn't even move plants or decorations from a gourami tank to a betta tank! As soon as the other tank is cycled, I would move her.

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Really? I've never heard about this in all the years I've kept fish. I've heard that female bettas could be kept with gourami, never anything about diseases.

Keeping more than one species of anabatid in a tank is not recommended, I'm afraid. Bettas, either male or female, are not recommended with gouramis. Some female bettas are worse than males for aggression.

I concur with essjay. There are a few exceptions to the multiple gourami species together but they work (sometimes, not always) with the rarer species.

The other thing to mention here is that by keeping so few of some of the gourami, such as the sparkling and the croaking, you are missing out on some fascinating interactive behaviours within a group of each of these species. I would recommend five or six of either species; this will give you a probable mix of male/female, and the males in such situations will be very interactive. Displays will occur, they will "communicate" with sounds (the "croaking" aspect which applies to both species), and you will inevitably see spawning with survival of some fry even without any effort from you. Provided they have a good blanket of substantial floating plants which are essential for gouramis and provide shade to bring out their colours (which can be very sparkling in dimmer light) and make them more settled and much less stressed. You could keep a small group (5+) of both species (Trichopsis pumila is the sparkling, T. vitatta is the croaking) together in the 33g though I would recommend separating the species.

I certainly would not advise bettas (male or female) in with gourami, as essjay noted. And another problem is the golden barbs, which should not be housed with any gourami.

Barbs are by nature more active swimmers, and such fish annoy sedate fish like all gourami. This species (Puntius semifasciolatus) must be kept in a group, preferably 8 or more, or it may become shy and stressed. In a sufficiently-sized aquarium (which should be a 4-foot length) and depending upon water parameters it will manage well with similar-sized non-aggressive fish like small to medium barbs, danio, loaches, rainbowfish, and livebearers. It should not be kept with slower fish as it may nip fins. It will attain 3 inches and this too will be an issue for the much smaller and quieter gourami.

Sparkling Gourami would be my top choice, yet are very hard to come by. I have only seen one for sale anywhere in the past 6 months.

The barbs I was unsure of, as in all my years of keeping fish, I have never kept a barb before. Usually just bettas and rasboras. I could always put my rasbora in with the gourami, they do come from similar areas.

I also don't really do much with plants, floating or stem. Just java ferns, or some crypts. I keep the aquarium more of a natural one with lots of wood and botanicals.

While I agree that certain gourami shouldn't be kept together, the smaller peaceful ones should be fine. My idea for starting this was an instagram account that had a mixed gourami black water tank. There were 4 species, two that have and two other rare ones.

The female betta that I have is not aggressive at all. She is very timid, probably more so than my sole sparkling gourami. I wasn't sure of a betta with them, but with her demeanor and all of the hiding places I figured she would be fine, and so far I have seen no issues. I have heard though, of people keeping Giant / King Bettas with sparkling gourami before. I love the wild coloration that some have. Too bad they couldn't live together.

bettas_in_DE said:

I also don't really do much with plants, floating or stem. Just java ferns, or some crypts. I keep the aquarium more of a natural one with lots of wood and botanicals.

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The species here must have floating plants; they expect them and will be stressed without.

bettas_in_DE said:

I could always put my rasbora in with the gourami, they do come from similar areas.

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What rasbora species? Generally rasbora are slow sedate fish, less likely to fin nip anything, so good with gourami. But there are always exceptions.

bettas_in_DE said:

My idea for starting this was an instagram account that had a mixed gourami black water tank. There were 4 species, two that have and two other rare ones.

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The fact that we see something on the internet does not mean it is good for the fish. But as I said earlier, some species can work together in sufficient space, others definitely cannot. I have had sparkling, chocolate (two species) licorice together and both spawned, but it was a 70g 4-fgoot tank full of plants (see below photo...this is how to keep these fish).

You use water sprite as your floating plant? I had some salvinia in the tank, but with the HOB filter it kept getting messed up. (Really need to baffle -sis that the word - the filter to make the flow slower) I also had water lettuce in the previous tank set up that I loved, but it got BGA and died when treating. I really want to keep anything plant wise to being located in Asia.

Do you think adding something like this:
https://tanninaquatics.com/collections/jau-river-brazil/products/pygmy-date-palm-frond
Would be a good idea to add more cover?

As for rasbora, Harlequin Rasbora or Lambchop Rasbora, those are the two species that I currently have.

Also, I am very aware that just because something is online doesn't make it a good idea. I've kept fish for 16 years, I just haven't had much experience with certain types of fish. Gourami being one of them. I have had maybe 1 type of gourami in my whole 16 years of keeping fish. The person who posted about this seems to be very knowledge able though, so I was inspired by it. I generally enjoy Asian fish so I wanted to give it a try.

Water Sprite is about the best floating plant. Once settled it should grow very well and the adventitious plants produced on alternate fronds (it is a true fern) will ensure you have it for ever. I bought one in 1996 and I have its descendants through multi-generations as my main floater in most tanks. Ceratopteris cornuta is the best species for floating; the others can be floating or substrate-rooted.

That palm frond is as a decor item. My only concern would be does it decompose submersed. I've no idea but if it does, it coould become a true mess and dangerous. I recall my friend the Curator of Freshwater Fish at the Vancouver Aquarium once telling me of his bringing back a collection of dwarf cichlids and the leaf litter they spawn upon from their habitat in SA. All was fine for a few weeks and then something seemed wrong and the fish died literally overnight; turned out to be the toxin from the leaves. In the habitat the stream carried this away, but in the aquarium it only increased until the fish succumbed.

Those Trigonostigma rasbora are fine; my favourite is the smallest of the three species generally seen, T. hengeli; the brilliant copper above the black "axe" is stunning. I had these in with my Chocolate Gourami, sparkling gourami, eye-spot gourami in that 70g.

I am unsure if the palm does break down, but that natural black water thing is all the rage now.
My only concern with all the leaf liter (though I do have it in my current Gourami tank) is that it does break down or it hides detritus, so you may not notice a build up until it is too late, which is what happened to by little Apisto. I didn't realize there was so much detritus in his tank, until I couldn't find him, and moved everything only to create a poop storm and find him dead in a plant. Now I don't know if that was the cause, as I was too distraught to check the water parameters, or something else killed him. There were snails in the tank that are still alive though, so who truly knows. I will not let that happen again, especially to my little gouramis! For the time being they have been getting along really well.

I would love a 70 gallon, but I don't have space for that. A 33 Long would be the biggest tank I could fit. that is 48 x 12 x 12. I think a 55 would be too tall for my shelves. As is now I have a 20 tall where that 33 would go, and it is hard to get into and clean.

If people want black water, you can buy black water extracts and add them to the tank. Or you can get fine mesh bags and put peat moss or cut up non toxic plant leaves and put them in the mesh bag. Then put the bag in the filter. The bag will confine the plant matter but the plant leaves still release tannins and you get the black water without having leaves covering the bottom and covering up fish waste.

Driftwood will also release tannins and give you black water.

You can make black water outdoors in a tub of water and use that water to do water changes in the tank. Then you won't need any leaves in the tank. Just be sure to aerate the black water before using it, and make sure it's free of ammonia, chlorine/ chloramine.

I know how to get black water, which I actually don’t like... I just like the look of the leaf litter and the pods etc. Only with clear water! I had a black water tank and it got so dark that I couldn’t see the fish. No matter how many WCs I did, it stayed dark.

bettas_in_DE said:

I know how to get black water, which I actually don’t like... I just like the look of the leaf litter and the pods etc. Only with clear water! I had a black water tank and it got so dark that I couldn’t see the fish. No matter how many WCs I did, it stayed dark.

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The rage for blackwater you mention is ironically a very good thing for fish species that naturally occur in such water. The water will be tinted brown, true, but the beneficial protperties of the bacteria are incredibly good for the fish. Not only does this prevent much disease, it provides the fish will substances from which they obtain benefit.

One can go part way with this and have some of the benefits without strongly tinted water. I use oak leaves in some of my tanks but the water is never brown. In my 10g which houses my shoal of pygmy cories (they spawn regularly) and serves to grow out my Farlowella vitatta fry, I use more leaves per volume than the other tanks, and the water in this small tank does become dark yellowish which is visible in the buff-tone pail at water changes.

Byron said:

The rage for blackwater you mention is ironically a very good thing for fish species that naturally occur in such water. The water will be tinted brown, true, but the beneficial protperties of the bacteria are incredibly good for the fish. Not only does this prevent much disease, it provides the fish will substances from which they obtain benefit.

One can go part way with this and have some of the benefits without strongly tinted water. I use oak leaves in some of my tanks but the water is never brown. In my 10g which houses my shoal of pygmy cories (they spawn regularly) and serves to grow out my Farlowella vitatta fry, I use more leaves per volume than the other tanks, and the water in this small tank does become dark yellowish which is visible in the buff-tone pail at water changes.

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Do you get them from your yard?
I’m so OCD about keeping things from the same general area together, I only wanted leaves from Asia in here.