Pearl Lace Gouramis

[lilacamy931]

Hey guys I have had my community tank running since October. We had some issues to begin with (sorted now) but think it is time to sort the gouramis out. With my first ideal stocking I introduced gobies which turned out to be bad as the largest ate my lamps and beat up one of the gouramis. Immediately got rid of the things but distrubed the tank immensely doing so. Since all this the gouramis are the least seen fish in the tank, they stick to low floor with the cories and are we barely see them in a tank with cories, glass catfish and tetras. The two we have are female, what can I do to help them come out into the open or has this door closed?

The tank is a 160 litre with 2 filters, has a bn, 16 cories, 5 glass catfish, 10 tetras, 2 lamps and 2 lace gouramis. Only live plants in there, including tall ones to the back and floating foxtail. One will come out during feeding, the other only just. They are the least seen fish in our tank. Would they be best on a freshstart to a new home? Leave them to it? Or is it worthwhile getting more? I did not think these were a shoaling fish from what I have read but another thing to mention is that when I held some mollies for two days to go to a friend the gouramis became much more interactive.

 

[lilacamy931]

Any ideas at all? xx

 

[sylvia]

Ideally, you'd add more - but you are in danger of overstocking if you add any more fish. Instead, I can only suggest adding more hiding places (i.e. floating plants) and re-directing the water flow to make sure it isn't disturbing the surface too much (plus the cories will like it if there's a bit of a current nearer to the bottom). It can also help to black out one side of the tank, if it isn't already, make the substrate darker and make the lights less strong. They should get used to their environment in time though regardless so the key, really, is just to be patient
And they are not technically shoaling fish but they are still quite sociable - especially the females.