Gouramis and friends

[choriona]

What can live with a gourami? I have 2 and they are quite large. I have put guppies with them, but one-by-one they seems to get picked off. I'm not sure of the sex, but they both seem comfortable with each other. One isn't very territorial towards the other.

[corr]

What size tank do you have?

[MartinW]

I have blue gouramis and they seem pretty peaceful. I don't put them in pairs though cuz one's a male and the other's a female and I don't want the male harassing the female too much. I have kept my female with zebra danios, male bettas, and for a short time guppies (the danios seemed to bother the guppies more than the gourami). With my male I've kept female bettas and tiger barbs. Both tanks are 20 gallons. I did have problems with the barbs though. One of them slowly killed off the others, but I've never seen him bother the other species. From my experience gouramis are fairly peaceful towards other types of fish.

Martin

[choriona]

it's a 20 gal tank.

[corr]

I don't recommend putting anything else in a 20 that already has two large Gouramis. You'd need to go with something peaceful and of equal size or larger and there's simply not enough room IMO.

[Rebecca]

I have have lots of different fish with my gouramis. I never had a problem with them ever. Anyway that just my experiences.

[Shane Tesser]

There is two forms of blue. There is dwarfs which are very peaceful for the most part. Then there is the three spot, and i believe there is a golden version of it man made as well....or probably several man made versions now, lol. There is also a similar two spot rarely seen in the hobby. The three spot will get fairly big...about 4" or more i believe, and when adults they can become quite nasty! I would agree with Corr that your current set up is probably perfect.

Gouramis are for the most part very peaceful yes, however, some of the larger species are the opposite. Some grow to several feet in lenght and are not suitable in the community tank. Its to bad the stores will still sell them to unsuspecting buyers when the fish is only an inch or so long. The Toronto Zoo has one in one of its displays. I dont remember which one it is off hand...but the thing is absolutely massive! I would say he weights about 20 pounds and is at least two feet!

[corr]

I saw those Gouramis a couple of weeks ago! Absolutely huge!

I had a pair of three spots in a 35. The male was 5" and had quite an attitude.

[marisa]

Shane is this the fish you are talking about? If so we love this fish and make sure to see him each time we visit the zoo:

<img src="http://members.rogers.com/mattl/fishw.jpg">

I am not sure if this is what you are talking about but this fish above is a amazing fish! He is huge! I love the display he is in too.

Marisa

[Shane Tesser]

Thats the guy Marisa, thanks...great pic of him by the way ;)

[choriona]

ok. I guess i should of said what kind of gouramis : i have a 2 spot one and a pearl one. Both about 2.5". They are in a 20 gal aquarium. I now put in some female bettas, but those seem to hide along the top and back of the tank. Oh, and one large white skirt tetra. They all seem to be getting along.
Are guppies just harder to keep alive? Or do I just have bad luck?!

Chor

[Shane Tesser]

Guppys are probably one of the easiest to keep, however, thats provided they are by themselves and a couple simple rules apply. For one, if the water is very fast moving, the males sometimes have trouble. The modification of the long flowing fins has made swimming somewhat hard for them. Also, most ppl tend to over heat them. Guppys are a cooler loving fish. They can tolerate higher temps, but they do need a cooling down periold. Infact, over heating them will stop their breeding...and everyone knows how famous they are for breeding. Im sure your set up is fine, everything else is going good...perhaps there was just one small element missing that they needed....this happens.

Just a note...groups of female bettas contrarry to popular believe will infact fight if there is not enough hiding spots. If your plan is to introduce a male for breeding this set up will not work. They along with the grouamis both being top water fishes will collide...especially since they both build bubble nests. Plus, there will have to be tonnes of hiding spots for the females as the males will constantly bully them to death. But however...you may get lucky as this sometimes happens :)

The two spot gouramis are beautiful...they will still become a bit aggresive with age however. But i think the rest of the mix are fish that will handle them

Pearl gouramis are one of my personnal favs. They can be long lived but are alot more delicate then the most of the larger species. They are very suseptable to improper water conditions and over crowding. As well, they do not fair well once hit with such things as white spot or other fungal type diseases. If you get a chance...get a pair...its amazing the red colour on the throat these fish will produce when breeding approaches. Great fish! :D

[AymKing]

I have two 5" snake skin gouramis with 7 bala's and 7 silver dollars, 2 paradise gouramis, 2 rubber lip plecos, 2 albino red tailed sharks and 2 rainbow sharks. In a 29 gallon, (I'm soon to be moving them into a 65 gallon) I know it's alot but I've had them for quite a while and I just do alot of partial water changes, all is well. I think the guppys were just too small and tempting to your big gouramis. ;)