Moody Blue

[Iann]

Hello all, the male blue dwarf Gourami that I have in my tank, is a stropy git in the mornings. He gets all territorial over the top of the tank and spends about an hour each morning chasing my pearl gourami and female blue dwarf. This will go on until he has had a good graze on the plant tops and the algae on the back ground boards.
When he is done he moves off and looks for food in the middle and at the bottom of the tank, at which point he becomes a lot more passive, he even moves out of the way of the other fish
I’m thinking of adding some more fish this week, I was going to get two small angel fish but I’ll probably leave them for now as it might be a bit too much for the pearl gourami. I’ve considered a rainbow fish, as there is a choice of three different ones to pick from at the LFS that I use. I want something that will not back down from my male blue dwarf, but is also a good community fish?
I have two DB gourami, two pearl gourami, two mollies and six tetra.
My tank is 120CM x45x65. 300L.

 

[TammyLiz]

I would get something that would stay around the bottom of the tank. You have middle (tetras) and top dwellers (gouramis), so a bottom dweller would give you a nice distribution of fish around the tank. Maybe a group of cories, or if you don't like them, some sort of loach.

 

[Iann]

I would get something that would stay around the bottom of the tank. You have middle (tetras) and top dwellers (gouramis), so a bottom dweller would give you a nice distribution of fish around the tank. Maybe a group of cories, or if you don't like them, some sort of loach.

Thanks, I’m definitely leaving some room for a couple of clown loach. I probably will leave the top of the tank as it is. A few cories and maybe a bristle nose plec would be good for the bottom, as they shouldn’t bother any of my other fish.

 

[TammyLiz]

Well, if you are wanting clown loaches I would say that would be your bottom fish and you should skip the bristlenose and the cories. The clown loaches get to be a foot long! (30 cm). They like to be in groups. Get at least three. I would say they are an excellent choice but they really do best in a species tank once they get big. They most likely will eat your tetras eventually. If you plan on getting another tank in the future you could move your mollies tetras and gouramis and house the clowns in your current tank and get some of those rainbows you were thinking about. Large rainbows have been known to coexist well with large clown loaches. I would love to own some clown loaches but don't have a big enough tank available. I would suggest doing some research on clowns before purchasing them. Check out loaches.com. Go to the species index and check out the clowns. Awesome fish.