# G O U R A M I Love ;]



## Guest (Jul 3, 2006)

10g
1 Gourami


The above is currently what is in my cousin's tank. They are here from California, and they are thinking about adding more fish to their tank. Though they hardly know anything about fish [One of them wanted to add a Sea Horse], they need to start finding which fish to put with a Gourami. It is a dwarf gourami, and it seems VERY lonely... So, when they get back they want to add some. The mom said that she liked Cardinal Tetras... But I just wanted all of your opinion of what to add. I know that they could add a school of Neon Tetras, but what else?


Thanks Much


XOX
Tessa


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Dwarf gourami in general are pretty peaceful but shouldn't be kept with other labyrinth fish, except in a male/female pair. I have a pair in my community tank and they do well, including some White Cloud Mountain Minnows. Individual's personalities may vary. Neons would not be a bad choice, imo, but neons aren't very hardy anymore. They tend to die at the drop of a hat for no particular reason at all. They are also highly susseptible to the Neon Tetra Disease.

They could get a small school of WCMMs, which are active and fun to watch. Or zebra danios, platies, mollies, guppies, just about anything really that's community safe, although others with long, flowing fins might be an issue.


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## Guest (Jul 3, 2006)

white clouds, harlequin rasboras, cardinal tetras, flame tetras, or glowlights!

I'd just add a school of small fish to the tank and leave it at that. Don't try to stuff too much into a 10g...they are small.


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

Id put in a school of small fish, like maybe black phantom tetras. I dont know if guppies would be smart because they tend to overstock the aquarium with all the fry. If the gourami eats the fry its okay, but i dont think dwarf gouramis would do that.

good luck!


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

My dwarf gourami don't eat fry but there wouldn't be any fry to eat if he just gets all males or all females of any of the livebearers.


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## Ajreoandoeka (Aug 11, 2005)

I have my 2 dwarf gouramis and have recently been reading about compatability of them because I'm planning on getting a larger tank very soon! I'm really interested in Glassfish, so of course I'll recommend them to you. I've also read that pretty much all of the tetras (NOT ALL though) do well with the dwarf gouramis. Another of my favorites, cories, also do well with the dwarf gouramis. I know this because I used to have them in there with them.

So if all that tank has in it is 1 dwarf gourami, I would suggest getting a second one and adding a SMALL (3??4??) school of either glassfish (Not painted!!!!) or one of the compatible types of tetras. (Suggestions: Black Phantom, Glolite, Head and Tail light, Flame) In addition, I'd get 3-4 cories for the bottom of the tank. They are cute little entertaining fish.

That's what I plan to do first when I get my bigger tank....it's going to be a 30 so I have quite a bit more room....Best of luck to you...Dwarf Gouramis are the best!!!



P.S. IF I have said anything incorrect, feel free to tell me and I'll edit them out...I am by NO MEANS an expert!

EDIT: As boxermom said, you may want to leave out the tetras/glassfish...too many fish for the 10g. My plans are for a 30g...sorry I forgot to cut them down for a 10


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

The only thing I would correct is that that's an awful lot of fish for a 10 gallon. I'd suggest either the cories or the glassfish/tetras, but not both. Actually, I'd recommend cories over the others as dwarf gourami like a good bit of swimming room and the cories stay out of the way. I wouldn't really recommend tetras, come to think of it, as they are faster movers and could wig the slower moving gourami out. That's why I like the WCMMs, they aren't really very fast movers. They sort of meander.


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2006)

Boxermom said:


> My dwarf gourami don't eat fry but there wouldn't be any fry to eat if he just gets all males or all females of any of the livebearers.


You can't get all males of live bearer's unless its a big tank as they will fight. Also zebra danios are to active for a 10g they need a long tank, I believe a long 20g is the minimum size tank you can put them in. For a 10g with a gourami, I'd suggest just about 5 lemon tetras or any other kind of small tetra, maybe 5 black widow tetras.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Durbkat said:


> You can't get all males of live bearer's unless its a big tank as they will fight.


Really? Hmm... then how do you explain that most LFSes I know of keep their livebeares separated? The only time I've ever seen any aggression in our livebearers are when there isn't a sufficient ratio of males to females and the males end up battling over the females. When there are only males, they don't have anyone to fight over. We keep ours separated until/unless we want fry. Then we put them together until the female(s) gets knocked up, then we separate them again.



> Also zebra danios are to active for a 10g they need a long tank.


I would have to disagree with that. Of course the more room you can provide, the better, but they can do quite well and thrive nicely in smaller tanks.


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2006)

Well your the only person that I've heard say a 10g is ok for zebra danio's as everyone on TFF and on TFK say that anything shorter than a long 20g is to small as they like to to back and forth and they can't really do that in a 10g, its like having a dog that really likes to run for hours but only walking it for 20 minutes. LOL


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2006)

Danios can be nippy and are too active to be kept in a small tank with a gourami.
I've never heard of male livebearers fighting, but it could happen. Same with most male fish i guess. Male gouramis are kept together in LFS and usually you don't see much aggression unless you watch the tank for a long time. When there are 50 fish in a 10g there won't be much aggression.

The only cories I'd put in a 10g are pygmy cories and habrosus cories. Both stay around 1 inch. All other cories get too large and need atleast a 20g long minimum.

I think black widows, head and tailights and black phantom tetras get too large for a 10g. If they were the only fish in the tank it could work, but not with other tankmates.

Just my 10 cents....


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## harif87 (Jun 5, 2006)

Boxermom said:


> Dwarf gourami in general are pretty peaceful but shouldn't be kept with other labyrinth fish, except in a male/female pair.


I beg to differ. I have in my gourami tank 2 bluespot gouramis 1 gold gourami and 2 male dwarf gouramis that have been living with eachother for a while now. The can be kept with other labyrinth fish just watch out for male-male dwarf gourami aggression, they are only aggressive to their own kind.

Also i dont think you should have a problem with fry unless you have a smaller tank with alot of fry because dwarfs are pretty slow while fry are jetters.

Dwarfs are very peaceful and great to watch because of theyre elegant way of swimming and their magnificent colors. I suggest you tell your cousin to upgrade to a bigger tank because it will get cramped in there. Also i suggest for your cousin to get floating plants to make the dwarfs feel more at home, but this is not a must.


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## Guest (Jul 6, 2006)

I noticed that when I had oplaine gouramis (I had 2 of them) and both of them attacked and chased my black widow tetras. Then the gouramis eventually died. 

I guess I was thinking about have the improper ratio of male to female's, sorry.

False julli corys don't get to big for a 10g as I had 3 in mine and they were fine, until the gravel wore off their bristles.


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