Centerpiece fish suggestions for new 40g breeder. Please and thank you!

Moleen

A 40G Breeder is a 4ft tank

Byron

I would not combine gourami with Emperor Tetra. The latter are quite active fish, and this can unsettle sedate fish like gourami. Either or. If the gourami are chosen, one male and 2 females would be best.

With these, the rummys should be fine; they stay near the bottom and the gourami are upper water fish. Lots of floating plants for gourami.

For another mid-water fish, one of the medium rasbora would work. Rasbora are peaceful and rather sedate fish too, and spend their time in the upper half of the tank. Not the "dwarf" species though, as they will be eaten.

After coming across your second post, and merging that in to this thread, I see Panda Garra is also mentioned. This is not at all a good combo with the other fish. The Garra occurs in fast-flowing mountain streams, so it needs a decent current and cooler water. The gourami would perish in this (both aspects).

Byron.

Moleen

Hi Byron,

Thanks for responding. What type of Rasbora would you suggest and how many? Can just one male Pearl Gourami be ok by his lonesome? Thank Kathy :)

Byron

I would get three Pearls, provided you are sure they are 1 male and 2 females; otherwise just one male or a pair. It is always nice having both sexes because the fish will be more natural in its behaviours and this is usually fascinating to watch, and very rewarding when fish are themselves in an aquarium. This is a very beautiful gourami, and more inclined to be peacefrul than the similar-sized Blue Gourami (or any of that species' varieties of which there are sedveral), but males are territorial and with more than one male might be troublesome.

The three species in Trigonstigma (like the Harlequin, Lambchop or Hengels) are ideal, a group of 9-12. There are some others that are not in our profiles, and the names are eluding me at the moment. There was an article on rasbora in a recent issue of Practical FishKeeping, unfortunately I don't have the copy or I could easily scan it.

Byron.