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Hi

I plan on getting a few of these little beauties but I have one question first for anyone with knowledge about them/ experience with them (they're not too often discussed on the forum it seems)

My question is, how do they do in groups? Considering their size and the layout of my tank (lots of plants, hiding spots etc.) I'm pretty sure I can comfortably house 5 or so of them, unless of course they get quite aggressive towards one another. From my reading, however, it seems they're not nearly as bad as dwarfs or other types of gourami. Just looking for experiences here. Thanks

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What size is the tank? They are a bit territorial towards one another, but they rarely get into serious fights. They are probably the most peaceful of all gouramis, and five of them could easily be kept in a 10 gallon tank.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I have 6 of them in my 30 gallon planted tank, and they do fine together and with the other fish. I don't see any chasing or bullying between them at all. I did have some when I had just 2. One would definitely show dominance and chase the submissive one into hiding all the time. With the larger group, they pretty much just hang out and do their thing...

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Hi Cory,

Tank is actually 46 gallons. Pretty heavily planted (depending on when it gets a hair-cut ) Other inhabitants include harley rasboras and a few yo-yo loaches, nothing aggressive. So in your experience 5 or so would work in this set-up?

I figured like all labyrinth fish there is some degree of being territorial, but considering their small size I thought their territory must be equally as small, comparatively speaking.


EDIT: Thanks for the info illustrae, we posted at the same time.

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sounds like a wonderful setup for them

you won't be diappointed, those fish are juust stunning nothing can capture the colours and attitude of one of the males in full display mode!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Wonderful fish I have 5 in my 20g for quite a while and they've always been very peaceful fish IME. There is also a Betta coccina in the tank, and at one point a pair of honey gouramis as well. Surprisingly for so many labyrinth fish that there was never any agression.



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Nowher are those available at your LFS or are you going online? I can never find those on L.I.



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Thanks for the further replies, I'm excited about picking up a few of these little guys :0

tetra,

Yeah, I found a few at the an LFS in jersey, that was a few days ago so maybe they're all gone. One day this week I plan on heading over to see if they're still there. Live aquaria is supposed to have them, so there's always that... don't think they're in stock at the moment.

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Well maybe one day you me and LF will order some fish online so we can split the shipping.

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That's actually not a bad idea have the package held at a Fedex station in a central loaction, like Manhatten, then meet there and take our bags of fish our separate ways


That is, of course, if I can't find the gourami at the LFS...

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Besides LiveAquaria you could check AquaBid and also these links:

Fish2U.com

PetSolutions.com

That Pet Place



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I'm game. As long as it's in a public place. Who know who you guys are.

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Too funny tetratech,

Glad I found this thread. NowherMan6, is the LFS AF?

Yeah, I don't know if I want to take my bag of fish on the bus from Manhattan to Jersey after work during rush hour .

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Yeah, I don't know if I want to take my bag of fish on the bus

Oh that's too bad...I'm one of those people who always has 1 or 2 small coolers in the trunk of the car just in case

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I'm game. As long as it's in a public place. Who know who you guys are.

No dice. I insist on meeting ina dark side street... after sundown... I'll be the one in the trenchcoat and dark sunglasses.

At least we'll know how to spot tetra - he'll be the guy in the "Proud to be a Fish Geek" tee-shirt

yes LF, it's AF. They had a few of them, I couldn't count them all, probably 5-6. Don't know if they're still there. I'll take a ride out in a day or so to check. Kind of pricy, but no worse than shipping would cost

And come on, where's your sense of adventure? the port authority is a great place to carry around bags of fish!

Theresa, Is that "just in case"... you find some nice trops along the road side, or in case you stop at an LFS and see something irresistable? By the way, they don't seem to be in stock at any of the links you provided - thought it was funny that at petsolutions.com they're listed under the "Large Gourami" heading

One more question, theresa - do you keep yours with any other fish? if I recall you also have 5-stripe babrs, are they in the same tank? if so, how do they do getting food with the schoolers around? Can they hold their own?

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Is that "just in case"... you find some nice trops along the road side

Sure, you never know when you might spot hitchhiking fish

They're in my 20g which is a bit overstocked but I have good filtration, the tank is well planted, and I do weekly water changes.

So now that I've defended myself in advance, they gouramis are currently with a Betta coccina, two glassfish, some harlequins, belted (5-stripe) barbs, a pair of cherry barbs, kuhlis, a clown plec, and an ADF. They have no problem getting their share of the meals.

One thing I learned from keeping them-and I've read others saying the same thing-is that they will eat snails. I like MTS in my planted tanks but I've frequently seen the gouramis stalk the snails and eat them.

That's too bad about the links...you could always check back with them, or see if any of your lfs will order them for you.

Here's an older pic of the tank at feeding time. Mine tend to start out eating at the surface and then end up following the food to the bottom.



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I'll be the one in the trenchcoat and dark sunglasses

Yeah you'll be wearing a trench coat, I'll be wearing my fish geek shirt and LF will be in his nerdy vacation t-shirt. We will surely get arrested or beat up

...and I don't think Uncle Ben will come all the way from Jakarta to bail us out.

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Theresa,

Intersting that these little fish (no relationship to me) eat snails. I would assume that they only go after very young snails though, right?

And tetratech and NowherMan6 -
Too funny, but my fish shirt is not nerdy

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks for the pic Theresa. Good to hear they can hold their own during feeding. My only concern was that they may have a little trouble because my rasboras tend to go a little bonkers during feeding time. There are methods to get around that of course, but I was just curious nonetheless.

Also, no need to defend slight overstocking here Planted tanks and good filtration can make up for the biological effects of overstocking.

I also find it neat that they hunt snails. They look to be about the same size as that one MTS in Theresa's picture! Just the other day during a rotala haircut i found 2 little snails attached, not pond snails, no idea what kind but i threw them down into the loach pit. i wonder if they survived... In any case my search is offically on for sparkling gourami.


p.s. I was thinking more about this - it would make a pretty funny scene for three guys, all dressed like dorks, to walk out of a fedex station with a large box, place the box on top of a garbage can, reach inside and each pull out a bag of fish then just walk off in different directions.

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Back in the saddle!

Another gourami very similiar to the sparkling, but lest just say not nearly as "sparkling" is the croaking gourami.
Same size and body shape more brownish. I have seen croaking gourmai at my LFS. Got the name because of a croaking sound they can make. Slighly bigger than the sparkling



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