Tankmates for Gouramis

dnaranjo1

Hi,
I am new to keeping fish. Have not had a tank since my gold fish when I was like 10. We have set up a 55 gal tank and have 2 blue "three spot" gouramis in both appear to be female from what I have read. We are now ready to add some more fish to the tank but are unsure of what will work best. Any help?

Oh my boyfriend has had tanks before but just never had gourami he normally kept Oscars.

dnaranjo1

We have set up our 55 gal tank and have 2 blue "three spot" Gouramis, any suggestions on what other fish we can put with them? I believe both are female they both have shorter rounded dorsal fins.

Thanks!

Calmwaters

Hi there first welcome to the forum. I have never kept the type of gourami that you have so I would like to suggest that you go to our profile tab at the top and go under the Anabantids section and find the type you have to see what it suggest. Good luck with your tank and enjoy!

dnaranjo1

Thank you for your suggestions I went under the tab and looked it mentioned quieter barbs, which qualify as quieter? I have looked at some tiger barbs they have at the store here.

Calmwaters

I would not go with tiger barbs unless you do at least 8-10 of them and have lots of plants/driftwood/decor. I have a honey gourami, tiger barbs, and serpia tetra in a 44 gallon tank and they are all fine together. The gourami stays at the top with the floating plants, and the barbs and tetras stay in the rest of the tank and often swim around together.

Jordangourami

Hi I have a gold tree spot gourami and good tank mates are mollies and other fish of that nature but whatever you do dont buy dwarf gouramis they might get bullied until they are forced into a corner my dwarf got bullied and fins nipped but eventually he got all aggressive and even chased my 4 inch giant sailfin molly

Byron

Knowing your water parameters will help us suggest suitable fish. Also, if you check our profile of the Blue Gourami [this is actually the same species, there are several different varieties] it suggests suitable tankmates. Click the shaded name to see the profile.

Edit: After posting, I noticed a second thread on this same issue, so I have combined them to keep everyone's responses together.

I would not recommend Tiger Barb with any gourami, ever. While some may "get along" as Amanda's appear to be doing, this is not the ordinary. TB are by nature quite feisty and more aggressive than most other barb species. The long fins of the sedate blue gourami are too much of a temptation. "Peaceful" barb such as the Black Ruby Barb [this closely resembles the Tiger in pattern but is more colourful] or the Cherry Barb should work better. The tank setup is important, as the environment can often determine the fish's behaviour.

Byron.

dnaranjo1

Hi everyone thanks for the great suggestions, when I got off work on Friday, i purchased 2 Dwarf Gouramis and 1 pleco. They all are getting along fine. On Saturday my boyfriend went back to the store and to my surprise came back with 5 tiger barb. So far everyone is getting along great there is no bullies yet that I can see. We have also put in some live plants with the rest of our decor/driftwood. They have plenty of room since it's a 55 gal tank, but was not sure how much more we would be ok to add. We both really like angles but were not sure if they wold do well with what we have in the tank so far. I am also hoping that the Tiger Barb do not start to nip my gouramis, I did not see the post on that till this morning, but at least so far so good!

KendraMc

if you end up keeping the tiger barbs, get some more. they are far better in larger groups. i started with 5 and had a lot of problems, i now have 9 and everything is good. and remember, just because things start out ok does not mean that will last. if i had a bigger tank, i'd get more tigers to make them even less likely to get mean again.

dnaranjo1

yes we really enjoy the Tiger Barbs we will probably be getting a few more, as long as we have enough room in out tank