To Gourami or not to gourami?

[ALAW]

Hi all just wanted people opinions if anybody is willing to chip in.

I have a 13g long with ciano cf80 filter ( I modified the spray bar so there is a gentler flow of water) cycled 5 month ago and have been slowly adding fish since then, tank has mostly artificial plants and a couple of moss balls. I'm water changing 30% once a week to keep nitrates in check.

I currently have 3 male Platy, 5 male Guppys and 2 Amano shrimp. All seem to be getting along well, but I really want Gourami in there! I'm torn between a single male dwarf, a pair of honeys or even a single male honey.

I think either of them options would keep me in my stocking limits right?

Im about to introduce frogbit to the tank to further help with nitrates and provide the gouramis with the floating cover they will require.

What would peoples opinions be on this? I've attached a photo of the tank, and I've already had the hard water / soft water argument, so please no more talk of that ?

 

[ALAW]

Also 1 of the pics shows 2 Molly's I used to have but gave away, ignore that, I don't own the Molly's any more.

 

[Boundava]

You can go dwarf or two female honey gourami or one male honey. Problem with two male honey is they will fight in a 13 gallon. Problem with a M/F honey is that the male will pester the female to death. So stick with a frat tanks and get a boy dwarf or honey.

 

[Colin_T]

So do you have hard or soft water?
Gouramis come from soft water, guppies come from medium hard water.

Don't get dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) or any of their colour forms because they are regularly infected with the gourami Iridovirus and or Fish TB. Neither of which can be treated or cured and when those diseases are in your tank, they stay there until you scrap the tank.

Honey gouramis and most other small species of gourami are usually free of these diseases, but all gouramis can catch the Iridovirus and all fish can catch TB. So avoid dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and look at other species of small gourami like the honey gourami.

 

[ALAW]

You can go dwarf or two female honey gourami or one male honey. Problem with two male honey is they will fight in a 13 gallon. Problem with a M/F honey is that the male will pester the female to death. So stick with a frat tanks and get a boy dwarf or honey.

I was originally thinking just the 1 male honey, but seen mixed comments about keeping him on his own. If going for a pair its a case of finger crossed they pair up well and the male isn't a sex pest ?

 

[Boundava]

So do you have hard or soft water?
Gouramis come from soft water, guppies come from medium hard water.

Don't get dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) or any of their colour forms because they are regularly infected with the gourami Iridovirus and or Fish TB. Neither of which can be treated or cured and when those diseases are in your tank, they stay there until you scrap the tank.

Honey gouramis and most other small species of gourami are usually free of these diseases, but all gouramis can catch the Iridovirus and all fish can catch TB. So avoid dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and look at other species of small gourami like the honey gourami.

Just had to put down 2 of my pearls with the iridovirus, poor guys were just wasting away even with a healthy appetite.

 

[ALAW]

So do you have hard or soft water?
Gouramis come from soft water, guppies come from medium hard water.

Don't get dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) or any of their colour forms because they are regularly infected with the gourami Iridovirus and or Fish TB. Neither of which can be treated or cured and when those diseases are in your tank, they stay there until you scrap the tank.

Honey gouramis and most other small species of gourami are usually free of these diseases, but all gouramis can catch the Iridovirus and all fish can catch TB. So avoid dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and look at other species of small gourami like the honey gourami.

Thanks for the info, I was aware DG's can carry the iridovirus, think I'll sway, away from that option just to be safe, might just introduce the 1 male honey and monitor how he gets on, go from there.

 

[Metalman]

So do you have hard or soft water?
Gouramis come from soft water, guppies come from medium hard water.

Don't get dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) or any of their colour forms because they are regularly infected with the gourami Iridovirus and or Fish TB. Neither of which can be treated or cured and when those diseases are in your tank, they stay there until you scrap the tank.

Honey gouramis and most other small species of gourami are usually free of these diseases, but all gouramis can catch the Iridovirus and all fish can catch TB. So avoid dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and look at other species of small gourami like the honey gourami.

Hi Colin, I was chatting with the main guy at acres my local aquarium place and he suggested pearls as they are very hardy and being bred mostly in captivity they are mostly used to harder water now than their natural cousins in the wild. So will it make a diff if they seem happy enough to breed in captivity in harder waters.....my brain says they must be adapting to environmental conditions mate?

 

[Colin_T]

Just had to put down 2 of my pearls with the iridovirus, poor guys were just wasting away even with a healthy appetite.

Who told you that was the Iridovirus?

The Iridovirus normally causes the fish to stop eating or not eat as much as normal, develop sores on its body, act lethargic and die a few weeks later.

If a fish is eating well but losing weight, it can be intestinal worms or an internal protozoan infection.

Did they do stringy white poop?

--------------------

Hi Colin, I was chatting with the main guy at acres my local aquarium place and he suggested pearls as they are very hardy and being bred mostly in captivity they are mostly used to harder water now than their natural cousins in the wild. So will it make a diff if they seem happy enough to breed in captivity in harder waters.....my brain says they must be adapting to environmental conditions mate?

Most gouramis are bred in captivity, in soft water, in Asia. If you have access to locally bred fish, that is fish bred in your town or state, then they would be worth getting. However, if your local aquarium store is getting their fish from overseas, then they will be coming from Asia and will have been bred in soft water.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I've NEVER lost a dwarf gourami to that disease - so I think educated breeders have done a great job of basically getting rid of it. That's just 3 yrs of Dwarf Gourami keeping talking - never lost one from the virus. , My problem is their lives are terribly shortened because my water is not soft enough (something I'm working on fixing). The ones I've lost have been to swim bladder issues and a couple of catastrophic mistakes I must have made during a couple of water changes - I'll never know what I did wrong - or in my case, my assistant - and she was so careful. My water is moderately hard. I use a regulator product to adjust my PH9.4 water down to 7.0 During a water change I adjust EACH bucket to 7.0 before it goes in the tank (so I cannot or will not use a Python to change my water because you can't treat your water in advance.

They are beautiful and unfortunately rather boring - but they do have subtle little personalities. My favorite is a large Pearl (the only non-dwarf gourami I own). I call her "Pearl" and I just bought another one - much younger - that I call Minnie-Pearl. Clearly the queen of the tank with out being mean, just assertive and tends to break up any little battles in the tank by just showing up.

All my other gourami are of various colors and they are so beautiful but over 3 yrs, like I said, I've lost a number to swim bladder disease and I think my harder water is cutting their lives way too short - so after these go - probably no more Gourami for me - although I'm getting ready to try some aquatic peat in an effort to soften the water - but this will mess up the water for my plecos that prefer harder water. But I think the pleco's are tough enough to deal with it.

I just love this species and pay no attention to the so-called virus. I buy nearly all my fish online from VERY reputable breeders and they are more costly but far healthier than the Petsmart varieties. I pay for it in the shipping $29-79 to overnight ship a few fish.

So they need softer water and slow peaceful water but with plenty of O2 so some air stones may be good along with plants. Mine will not TOUCH vegetables at all so far - just flakes and smaller sinking pellets. They will eat pellets off the ground but not too keen on eating flakes. They eat slow so put some food in (flakes) and wait for them to notice before it all sinks to the bottoms to my cleanup crew. Then put in a little more flakes and wait again until you see all have eaten. In other words, don't put their entire amount of flakes in at once or most will get wasted and you'll end up putting too much food in the water.

Finally - I think your tank is way too small to handle more fish. Get a 29 gallon or so before you think about adding Gourami or any other fish. Gourami don't seem to need to travel much but they really aren't that small, and to me a 13 gallon tank is meant for very small fish. not average 2-3 inch fish like dwarf Gourami These are not schooling fish or anything but they do seem to prefer to be bought in pairs of the same kind, even though they may end of hanging out with one with slightly different coloring.

 

[Avel1896]

Hello,
Gouramis are soft and acidic water fishes : pH 5.5 to 7 and GH 2 to 12.
Guppy, Molly, Platy, Swordtail are basic and hard water fishes : pH 7.5 to 8.5 and GH 15 to 30.
They cannot live in the same tank especially as your tank is much too small for your current stock.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I've NEVER lost a dwarf gourami to that disease - so I think educated breeders have done a great job of basically getting rid of it. That's just 3 yrs of Dwarf Gourami keeping talking - never lost one from the virus. , My problem is their lives are terribly shortened because my water is not soft enough (something I'm working on fixing). The ones I've lost have been to swim bladder issues and a couple of catastrophic mistakes I must have made during a couple of water changes - I'll never know what I did wrong - or in my case, my assistant - and she was so careful. My water is moderately hard. I use a regulator product to adjust my PH9.4 water down to 7.0 During a water change I adjust EACH bucket to 7.0 before it goes in the tank (so I cannot or will not use a Python to change my water because you can't treat your water in advance.

They are beautiful and unfortunately rather boring - but they do have subtle little personalities. My favorite is a large Pearl (the only non-dwarf gourami I own). I call her "Pearl" and I just bought another one - much younger - that I call Minnie-Pearl. Clearly the queen of the tank with out being mean, just assertive and tends to break up any little battles in the tank by just showing up.

All my other gourami are of various colors and they are so beautiful but over 3 yrs, like I said, I've lost a number to swim bladder disease and I think my harder water is cutting their lives way too short - so after these go - probably no more Gourami for me - although I'm getting ready to try some aquatic peat in an effort to soften the water - but this will mess up the water for my plecos that prefer harder water. But I think the pleco's are tough enough to deal with it.

I just love this species and pay no attention to the so-called virus. I buy nearly all my fish online from VERY reputable breeders and they are more costly but far healthier than the Petsmart varieties. I pay for it in the shipping $29-79 to overnight ship a few fish.

So they need softer water and slow peaceful water but with plenty of O2 so some air stones may be good along with plants. Mine will not TOUCH vegetables at all so far - just flakes and smaller sinking pellets. They will eat pellets off the ground but not too keen on eating flakes. They eat slow so put some food in (flakes) and wait for them to notice before it all sinks to the bottoms to my cleanup crew. Then put in a little more flakes and wait again until you see all have eaten. In other words, don't put their entire amount of flakes in at once or most will get wasted and you'll end up putting too much food in the water.

Finally - I think your tank is way too small to handle more fish. Get a 29 gallon or so before you think about adding Gourami or any other fish. Gourami don't seem to need to travel much but they really aren't that small, and to me a 13 gallon tank is meant for very small fish. not average 2-3 inch fish like dwarf Gourami These are not schooling fish or anything but they do seem to prefer to be bought in pairs of the same kind, even though they may end of hanging out with one with slightly different coloring.

Very good info! I also wouldn’t house peaty guppies with them.

 

[Metalman]

Who told you that was the Iridovirus?

The Iridovirus normally causes the fish to stop eating or not eat as much as normal, develop sores on its body, act lethargic and die a few weeks later.

If a fish is eating well but losing weight, it can be intestinal worms or an internal protozoan infection.

Did they do stringy white poop?

--------------------

Most gouramis are bred in captivity, in soft water, in Asia. If you have access to locally bred fish, that is fish bred in your town or state, then they would be worth getting. However, if your local aquarium store is getting their fish from overseas, then they will be coming from Asia and will have been bred in soft water.

Got three pearls today from acres male and two females that the main guy breeds himself along with his fave Julius cory’s. Tho I went for something smaller yellow fin tetras.....cute looking little things I had never considered before.