Stocking Thoughts for a 20 (Maybe 50?) Gallon Tank

[WestCoastChelle]

A word about the honey gouramis you'll find in stores. You may find three varieties of honey gourami - the natural colour, a yellow variant and a fish labelled as red honey gouramis. The red ones are not honey gouramis, they are either thick lipped gouramis or some sort of hybrid between the two.

Thank you! Yeah I'd read a bit about that. My local stocks "Dwarf Honey Gourami" and "Dwarf Sunset Gourami" (haven't been in to see them yet, just looked on the site, no pics). From what I understand Honey and Sunset are names for the same fish, but they aren't Dwarf. I'm gonna go take a look at them later this week. I also know there's a store in downtown Van that is probably better to buy fish from so I'll likely go there if I can't be sure what the LFS stocks.

 

[Essjay]

Take a good look at them before buying as they could be dwarf gouramis - Sunset dwarfs are dwarfs not honeys. But many stores do label honey gouramis as honey dwarfs even though they are not dwarfs. Common names can be so confusing

If in doubt ask for the scientific name, honeys are Trichogaster chuna, dwarfs are Trichogaster lalius.

 

[sharkweek178]

Here's something to consider when mixing honey gouramis and corys. Honey gouramis come from swampy waters and don't like a lot of current. They aren't built for a high flow environment. Many, if not most cory species like some water current. They'll play and swim against a current like a treadmill. In my research, I found that there are some corys that are good with low flow environment suitable for a honey gourami; pygmy corys (corydoras pygmaeus), salt and pepper corys (corydoras habrosus) and Sterbai corys (corydoras sterbai).

 

[WestCoastChelle]

Take a good look at them before buying as they could be dwarf gouramis - Sunset dwarfs are dwarfs not honeys. But many stores do label honey gouramis as honey dwarfs even though they are not dwarfs. Common names can be so confusing

If in doubt ask for the scientific name, honeys are Trichogaster chuna, dwarfs are Trichogaster lalius.

I'll do that, thanks. They probably won't be the first fish I stock in the tank so I may take some photos next time I'm in there if allowed and then post to see if people feel they are truly T. chuna.

Here's something to consider when mixing honey gouramis and corys. Honey gouramis come from swampy waters and don't like a lot of current. They aren't built for a high flow environment. Many, if not most cory species like some water current. They'll play and swim against a current like a treadmill. In my research, I found that there are some corys that are good with low flow environment suitable for a honey gourami; pygmy corys (corydoras pygmaeus), salt and pepper corys (corydoras habrosus) and Sterbai corys (corydoras sterbai).

Thanks for the info! I'm not at all set on a specific type of cory so I'll write those ones down and take a peek when I'm at the shop.