Snake skin gourami

[Erica27]

I’m looking to get a snake skin gourami. Should I keep him in a pair or sepret. Also do you think it’s okay to put them in my community tank. I do have smaller fish like platies in it!

 

[Colin_T]

Snake skin gouramis can reach 6-7 inches but are very peaceful and get along well in community tanks. You can also keep them in groups or prs. I use to keep 8 adults in a tank that was 3ft long x 2ft wide x 18inches high. There was never any issues with them and they swam around and showed off to each other but never did any damage.

A pr (1 male and 1 female) will be fine with platies in a tank that is 3ft long or bigger.

 

[Erica27]

Thank you so much for the help!!

 

[Byron]

I generally agree with Colin here but would caution that this fish should be in a 48-inch tank minimum. It may eat smaller fish, which means individual gourami can be more or less inclined to do this. It gets (or should) 8 inches normally in the aquarium, with 10-12 the usual size in the wild.

It is naturally omnivorous, feeding on plant matter, insects, larvae, algae and plankton; I don't know how it fares with plants in the tank if this is an issue. Being benthopelagic [having a natural buoyancy so it can float in deep water] it feeds primarily from the substrate and mid-water, less frequently from the surface. It will accept most prepared foods, and a balanced diet including vegetable matter should be provided.

 

[Jeremy180]

Agree with Byron and Colin, Snakeskin Gourami are very peaceful for thier size, but do get fairly large. Fishbase states a maximum length of 25cm (about 10") and a maximum weight of 500 grams (about one pound, two ounces).

Based on studies I have seen on captive VS wild maximum weight it is a good idea to plan on any fish reaching at least 75% of it's wild maximum weight, which would be 500 x 75%= 375 grams.

On the INJAF (It's Not Just a Fish) homepage, they recommend as a rule of thumb giving fish at least 6x their adult body length
http://injaf.org/articles-guides/general-guides/understanding-fish-stocking-guides/
(Under the header "The six times the length rule")
as minimum tank length for non schooling fish, and general consensus is fish also need 1.5x thier adult body length to be able to turn around without too much difficulty.
This comes to a recommended minimum of 1.5 meters, or about 5 feet tank length, and a minimum front to back dimension of 375 mm, or about 15 inches.

In their book, "Your First Aquarium"
http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/book-excerpt-your-first-aquariumfull-article.htm
Tropical fish hobbyist's recommended stocking rate is one gram per gallon of small fish, and states that overcrowding begins at 1.5 grams ger gallon of small fish .
Using an exponent of 3/4 to account for klieber's law,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleiber's_law
And factoring in that it is recommended to plan for 75% of the highest recorded wild weight, 500 grams, which comes to 375 grams.

Using Calculator Soup's fractional exponent calculator,
https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/exponent-fractions.php
375 x exp 3/4 = a recommended minimum of 85.22 gallons, or 322.6 liters per fish, and an absolute minimum of:
85.22÷1.5=
56.81 gallons, or 215 liters that each snakeskin gourami should have to itself for bioload purposes, and:
6 x 25cm fish length = 1.5m
1.5 x 25cm= 37.5cm
A tank no less than 1.5 meters, or about five feet long, and no less than 37.5 centimeters, or about 15 inches front to back, to allow adequate room to exercise.
Edit: corrected spelling and added reference links.