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I need a little stocking advice on my tank. It is a 55gal moderately planted. Temp about 76 F, pH 8.0. Currently I have 6 Pepper Cories, 1 female Neon Dwarf Gourami and lots of 'bad' snails... I will be adding a school of about 6 otos and I want 2 or 3 pearl gouramis. I am considering getting 2 yoyos for the snail issue. My goal for the tank was originally to showcase calm, graceful fish like the pearls and to just have a nice natural look, not really fully stocked. However, my husband has been pestering me for 'pretty' fish. I suppose neon tetras are out with my high pH and I do not like platys or swordtails. Actually, I just really don't want little, high energy schooling fish (besides the cories! ). Could anyone recommend something to add some color to the tank? I don't want aggressive species. I have had bad luck with dwarf males attacking their tankmates in the past. Are honey gouramis calmer? I would like sparkling or opaline gouramis but I can't find them around here... I suppose they aren't really colorful either though. Would a larger group of pearls get along or would they have territorial issues? I really have a lot of bottomfeeders planned so fish that will spend more time towards the top of the tank would be nice. Any ideas are appreciated!

On a side note... My LFS, which is usually rather mundane as far as variety goes, had a school of galaxy micro rasboras in! Very cool little fishes! I'm not planning on getting any but has anyone had any experience with these fish?

Hi there,
well, Pearl Gouramis are very pretty. It takes about 6-8 months for them to fully mature, but when they do good gosh they are gorgeous. A large group of pearls will get along, these are very peaceful fish and can be kept in large mixed sex groups. Male may squabble a bit occassionaly, but nothing to the extend other gouramis do.

If you plan to add loaches, yoyos are very boisterous and energetic and really need at least 3. A more peaceful, yet equally good snail eating loach would be the Polka Dot or Angelicus Botia (Botia Kubotai), which is a bit smaller than the yoyos at 3 inches in length, and half the weight overall of a yoyo loach.

As for pretty fish, how about some Congo tetras? These guys are larger, golden color fish with flowing beautiful fins. They tend to be calm and not the typical zooming round the tank tetras.

Turqoiuse rainbowfish are pretty laid back as Rainbowfish go, how bout some of those? They grow to about 3-4 inches and are bright blue.

Also, Galaxy rasboras, wow, a lovely fish. I would love to have some, however they are 30 dollars each here currently.
They are a small colorful fish, peaceful, and moderately active.
Another option would be the Harlequin or Lambchop rasbora, either of these would look nice too.
White Cloud mountain minnows are also very pretty little peaceful topwater fish.


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I have one Pearl Gourami, that came with the tank. I not into them but I don't get rid of fish, I tool the responsibility so he's mine. So here the thing I have no snails in his planted tank. I'm pretty sure he eats them. I even tested by adding snails from another tank and still no snails. Now I know everyone that he probably lonely and if I could find him a good home I would, but the LFS is not a good home. so I don't know if the YoYo's would be needed if you got the pearl gourami's.

If you husband wants pretty fish see if he like rams. there ugly enough to be consider pretty



Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Pearl Gouramis are just about my favorite fish so I may try to build up a group of them. Good to hear they may be snail eaters! I will give them a chance at it before I add loaches as the smaller types are very uncommon around here.

We do both like rams. Again, hard to find around here but if I'm patient I could probably get a nice pair.

I will look into the congo tetras too.

So Very Sneaky, would you like to meet me at the border for the galaxys? They are $7 each here! Do you know if they are very hardy or how long they might live? I assumed they would be rather delicate.

To go to your original posting, I know you said that you don't want a schooling fish, but neon tetra's can adapt to your pH. I have a pH of 8.0 as well, and I have succesfully kept a school of neon's for over a year now. You'll find that your LFS also has the same quality water as you (unless you are treating your water or your LFS is in a different territory to you) and they will probably only be treating their water for more expensive species than neons (Discus maybe, but not neon's). Any neon's that you buy from your locality should be fine - although breeding them may be a different matter.

As for Galaxy Rasbora's (that aren't actually Rasbora's, but there are posts going in to that detail elsewhere) they are surprisingly hardy. Like you, I assumed that they would require water quality similar to their wild environment, given that any specimen that you buy is likely to be wild caught. However, I have 10 of these, being kept in a considerably higher pH than their natural environment, and they are fine. I haven't lost any (in about 3 months of keeping them) and they have even recently displayed mating behaviour. I have spoken to two of my LFS, who both have the same hard water as I do, and they both say they haven't had any losses (I accept that this could be salesmen talking).

However (and this is a very big however), they are at great risk of extinction. They have become so popular that they have been overfished in their natural habitat and are now considered extremely rare. The general recommendation in fishkeeping circles is that you shouldn't buy these fish unless you are an experienced keeper capable of breeding them. This would not only reduce the demand on the wild population, but also create a captive bred population to stock the retail trade so that private keepers can have an ethically correct market. I bought my Galaxy's before this issue came to the fore, if I'd known then what I know now, I certainly wouldn't have bought them. You need to ask yourself if you can seriously help this species by succesfully breeding them to a level that you can supply the retail trade, if not you really should leave this fish alone. Far be it for me to judge with my limited experience, but if you have a natural pH of 8.0, I would suggest that you are best steering clear of the Galaxy Rasbora. Which is a shame as it is a truly beautiful fish, but because of this we should do all we can to help this species prosper.

Yeah I agree with this post on the near to extinct Galaxy rasbora, but you know what would be an equally good plan for any willing to take it on. Get some of these fish and breed them. With a little luck and skill you could be providing all the Galaxy rasboras your town/city needs, with no need to go to the wild for more.
I have heard these fish are being bred in captivity now, and soon most of the wild fish are going to be phased out for captive bred specimens (which are healthier overall and cheaper to buy/sell).

Lioness where do you live?

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I would love to breed more fish but I was going to try the cories and I think they will be the extent of my fish keeping skills/space for the moment. If the galaxys are still in the shop in a few weeks I may reconsider current arrangements.

I'm in Lewiston, Idaho, approx 4 hrs from the Canadian border (not sure how feasible my plan was... ). Not exactly fish capital here. As I mentioned in another post, had to order my flourite/live plants online as no one seems interested in 'real' tanks around here. I hope whoever ends up with those fishies takes good care of them..