Are Your Gouramis Your Centrepiece Fish?

[LongS]

Are they your main attraction? If not, what other attractive centre-piece-type fish do you keep with your type of gourami?

 

[LongS]

Anyone keep them with anything eye catching? I'm just wondering what people have had success with?

 

[c-dub]

I have angels in with mine... with no problems at all.

I have 2 smaller angels and one Veiltail Angel.

 

[Inchworm]

I don't usually think of them as centerpieces but my gouramis are the largest fish in the tanks they are in, so they do seem to be the eye catchers. I have three pearl gouramis in one of you 20 gallons and one old three spot in a 30 gallon. I do have four honey gouramis in another 20 gallon tank but they share the spotlight with a betta. The others in that tank are dwarf corys and you have to actually get up close and look to find them.

 

[Phisher84]

I use to be Gourami crazy! Had 4 Flame Dwarves, 2 Honey's, 2 Opaline's and 1 Pearl. Now I have 2 Honey's and 1 Flame.

The Opaline's got VERY aggressive towards all the other fishies and stressed the poor dwarfs to death. I gave the pair to a friends parents who have a very established tank, where they'll be the smallest guys in the tank, rather than the biggest.

Now that the bullies are gone, I would love to get a couple more dwarves, they're cute!

 

[LongS]

I never had success with dwarf gouramis before, both died within 2 months. I have now learned that many are inbred and are disease prone.

I have just purchased two small lace gouramis. Thay have both been in the shop for at least 3 weeks, but each have feelers missing, already they seem to be growing back in my tank though.

Thay are brilliant, and when they get larger i'm sure will be the eyecatcher of my tank.

I have even heard of people keeping certain gouramis with bettas. Would look great, but gotta be risky surely?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi LongS

I wouldn't keep any large gouramis with a betta. I posted about this recently on post #12 here.

Today I removed one of the honey gouramis and moved him to another tank. He just looked tired out and was hanging out in the corner of the tank. Even evenly matched fish will suffer from stress eventually if they have to be constantly on guard against aggression.

The long "feelers" are the gourami's ventral fins. They might have been damaged by aggressive tankmates or they could have suffered a bit of finrot. If they are healing and the fish look in general good health, you can expect them to recover completely.

Trichogaster leerii aka pearl or lace gouramis are a good sized fish. The males can be very aggressive toward the females and other fish but the one I have right now seems to be fairly sedate. I hope he stays that way.

BTW, please note that I made an error in my earlier post and have edited it. The last sentence was supposed to read dwarf corys not dwarf gouramis.

 

[star4]

My 300l tank is gourami and angels, however now my snakeskins are bigger I am going to try them in with my SA cichlid tank with serverums should make a nice combo if it works.

 

[nyx2k]

i have an adult moonlight female and she is very peaceful and graceful but she's in charge of the whole tank

 

[MrNiceGuy]

Are they your main attraction? If not, what other attractive centre-piece-type fish do you keep with your type of gourami?

i have a 20 gallon community with a dwarf gourami as the biggest fish. i think thats the best way to keep them... as a centre-piece in a small tank. i haven't experienced any of the troubles a lot of people claim to have with dwarf gouramis. people claim that they're "heavily in-bred" which makes them so fragile but I think the setup of the tank really effects their health more than anything else. Most people i hear from keep them with 3-spot gouramis or they keep more than 1 dwarf in a tank. This creates a stressful life for the dwarf and therefore they're much more prone to disease and a life of hiding. My dwarf, being the biggest fish in the tank (and the only gourami) is extremely active and rarely hides away.

 

[Ebbo]

I have recently introduced 4 keyhole cichlids to my opaline gouramis, they make for interesting companions!

EDIT: Thought I'd add some pics..

 

[Fishywish]

I keep mine with 3 featherfin catfish - they get on great! Also 7 neon tetras and used to have 3 apple snails

 

[Biulu]

I have kept dwarf and pearl gouramis in several settings, but they were always the centre piece with normally some other shoaling fish and cories.

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

They (my 2 pearls) are the biggest fish in the tank and the most beautiful. So I guess that makes 'em centrepiece fish. Certainly better behaved than the two angels that I swapped them for...

 

[Glenbo1981]

I found Gouramis a nuisance for anything similar sized to be added so gave up with them, but i did always use to keep Opalines.

I put a juvi Oscar (as a temp thing) in with my adult opaline, there wasn't much size difference, but the Opaline killed it... then started killing everything else, so i sold him, bought another, and after a few months started attacking stuff all the time, so i gave it away and gave up.

I also had a 9" Kissing Gourami that came with a tank that i bought years ago, his tankmates that also came with it were Neon Tetras! and lots of other small things, he never bothered any of them and looked awesome as a centrepiece fish, I then decided to buy a Gold Severum, so i sold most of the small stuff and i bought a Severum of similar size to the gourami (a 7" Gold Male sev) and the Kisser beat to within a inch of its life.....so i gave it away.

So i think Gouramis do well with things bigger or smaller than it, but anything i have tried of similar size, they become a right pain in the butt.

(oh and my step fatehr had a honey gourami that constantly beat up his 4" Firemouth!!!)

SO if they are big....they tend to be the 'Alpha fish' and make themselves the centrepiece