Can I Add Gouramis?

[Kairi]

My stocking list is as follows for a 75 gallon tank: 1 pleco, 7 mollies (2 male, 5 female), 6 buenos aires tetras, 6 pristella tetras, 6 zebra danios, 1 blue platy, molly fry

I'd like to add more color to the tank, or even a different kind of fish- and someone suggested gouramis... but I've heard they are aggressive. (One of my buenos aires tetras is a royal pain in the rear and tends to be aggressive if not fed twice daily, but she's the only aggressive fish in the tank.) Will they eat all my fry? Any suggestions on what kind of gouramis to add? I've only ever looked at them at the lps... so I know nothing about them really.

 

[IceH2O]

You might get away with a Dwarf Gourami, if you have the room 3 would be better. I have 4 in my 75 gallon and I only see them act aggressive towards each other. If there were only 1 I don't know if they'd be aggressive to the other tankmates or not.

They will eat your fry.

I don't know much about mollies, are they nippy? If they are they might attack the Gouramis whisker type feelers.

 

[Kairi]

nah, the mollies are playful, they don't nip. the one tetra is a fin biter, but since moving her, she hasn't nibbled anyone's fins off- it may help the tank is so big and there are more of her kind around.

as for eating the fry- it might just force me to buy a "breeding tank" for the moms and fry til they are old enough to not be eaten.

how big do dwarf gouramis get? are they mean aggressive? or just chase each other?

 

[IceH2O]

They only get about 3 inches long and about 2 inches high with a thin profile.

There are different varieties but the ones I got, they only sell males in my area, are red and blue striped.

I've heard that if not given enough room they could pick until they kill one of their own, reason I said you should get either 1 or 3 if you only had 2 then 1 would constantly get picked on. But haven't seen that out of mine.They usually just chase the invading Gourami from their territory and go back to their area.

I wouldn't recommend a male and female. When they breed they are overly aggressive to anyone in the tank.

 

[tarheel]

In my limited experience with gouramis, two males will fight constanly, although with that much space they may just be territorial and stay on opposite ends of the tank. You would not want to get a pair because the male is too aggressive to the female. If you are going to go with gouramis the best thing is One male and two female. The male is more colorful but with two females he will be less aggressive and will spread his aggression between the two. I had two males and had to take one back to the LFS. B)

 

[Kairi]

how do you tell the difference between male and female?

 

[Qays]

Makes are very brightly coloured, while females are a pale grey/blue