Can I Add A Gourami To My Tank? Advice Needed!

[AngelPen]

We have mostly small fish in our tank and my boyfriend was keen to get some larger fish as well. When we asked at our fish shop what would be compatible they suggested gourami, but didnt have any in at that time. My question is could we add one to our tank? And which would be suitable (ie would we only be able to have a dwarf or could we have a larger one).
We currently have -

Angelfish
Neon Tetra
5 lined barb
Guppies

He really would like quite a large fish, but I realise you have to be careful with the smaller fish getting eaten! He's been keen to get a gourami since he found out they make bubble nests! So I thought I'd ask what would be suitable, as we're quite new to fish!

Thanks,
Penny.

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

First of all how big is your tank because you don't want to over crowd it. 1" of fish per gallon is highly recommended. Gouramis are peaceful fish for the most part and would not eat any of your smaller fish. But, be careful as the angelfish and the normal sized-gouramis may be a little territorial with each other becasue they are realtively the same size. Also, the barbs may nip the fins and barbs of the gouramis. If they don't bother your angelfish they probably won't bother your gouramis, but they still might, be careful. You can add the dwarfs depending on how big your tank is. The dwarfs grow to 2.5'' and will not bother and won't be bother by the angelfish but the barbs might take some interest. Most of the other gouramis grow to 6''. They should be kept as a group of at least 2 or 3, or more if you have the space.

hope this helps

 

[Callum]

what size tank is that and also you cannot keep angel fish with neons unless your feeding the neons to the angels and what size tank do you have?

 

[AngelPen]

We have a Jewul Rekord 120, which I think works out at about 30 gallons?

We got a lot of advise in the fish shop about compatibility, and they said neons would be fine with the angels, as we already had our neons a while, so they had grown, and we got the angels very small, so he said they would all grow together, and not get eaten. We have had them together about 3 months or so now and no one has been eaten!
Heres 2 links to pics of the angels we have.

http/www.aidan.alpha-networks.co.uk/file...nd%20guppys.JPG
http/www.aidan.alpha-networks.co.uk/file...nd%20guppys.JPG

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

how many guppies? angelfish? neon? barbs? 2,3,4,5,6,7? how many of each? then we can get an idea if you can add other fish.

 

[AngelPen]

Oops sorry thought I'd already put that info in!

We have 6 barbs and guppies. 12 neons and 4 angelfish.

Also I had heard about barbs being quite nippy to fish with pretty tails etc, but the shop told us that 5 lined barbs are peaceful, and they would be ok, although we wouldn't be able to get any other type of barb.
We had the barbs as our tank founders to set up the cycling, as they are quite hardy.

 

[Callum]

lined barbs i think are ok and also your tank is too small for 4 angelfish well you may get away with it but when there older and become more terrotorial and im not sure about gourami as i know they like to be the top fish in the tank and so do angels and in a fight your gourami would be dead in seconds also neons growing up with angels does not work 100% of the time you may be ok but you may lose neons

 

[voo]

I think angels make bubble nests, if that's the only reason you wanted gourami's.

 

[KeeperOfFishyPeace]

6 barbs= 12'' of fish (adult size of fish combined)
6 guppies= 12'' of fish (again, adult sized combined)
12 neons= 12'' of fish
4 angelfish= 15-20'' of fish


oh, boy. you can't add any fish. you're quite over the fish length rule which i mentioned earlier. you've got 51-56'' of fish when you're really supposed to have 32'' (120litres=32 gallons by the way). the best thing for your fish is to return them to your LFS no matter how hard it may be. soon they will reach there full length and it will be quite packed. if you plan to keep them all DO NOT add any fish unless you return a hefty amount, do 20-25% water changes every 5-6 days, clean the bottom from the fish poop, add some ornaments and plants (live or fake)so they'll feel less stressed if they have a place to hide, and check and replace your filter regularly.


think about it

 

[AngelPen]

Hmm well we didn't think our tank was near its capacity! Should probably put the gourami idea on hold then!

Will angels grow to 20"?! At the shop we were told they would grow to about 5", although they would be longer height wise than they would be width! Are there dwarf breeds of angel fish maybe? Because there were some angels in the shop which were huge compared to the breeds we bought!

We do a water change at least once a week, sometimes more often, and the filter sponges get changed at the recommended times. We also clean the glass and gravel etc. I'm quite good at keeping the tank in good condition as I'm paranoid about keeping my fish well!

 

[Callum]

you mustve bought baby or young angels but angels will grow to about 13cm and they are very tall and terrotorial if i were you i would ditch the angels all together and also keeperoffishypeace the 1 inch per gallon rule is not the maximum that is a very rough guideline. The absolute maximum inches of fish for the tank is 48'' anyway ditch the angels get something else mabe a pair of rams and some platies perhaps?

 

[AngelPen]

Thank you all for your quick replies!

I was sceptical about angels, as I thought they were quite agressive fish, but the shop said they were ok, and ours do seem to be very peaceful fish, they don't bother the others at all, and they have lovely personalities, very inquizative, so always come up to the glass when you're doing something around the tank!

I guess maybe they aren't the best fish compatability wise, but we wouldn't be able to take them back, they're like part of the family now! We hope to get a much bigger tank when we get our own house and have more room, in the near future, so perhaps then we could move some fish so they have more room, and expand our fish family then!

 

[Callum]

you would need a fairly large tank 55 gal minimum and also you have to be careful if they breed if they breed it will be WW3 in your tank i had a friend who's angels killed everything when they bred also if they pair make sure they dont try to kill the weaker pair