Opaline Gourami Tank Mates?

Wisegy84

Wisegy84

Brunettes not fighter jets!
Aug 21, 2007
270
3
18
40
Suisun City, CA
Real Name
Don
The only tank I currently have set up is a 20 tall with one male (near as I can tell) Opaline Gourami (same species as Blue, Gold, Three Spot, etc).

I'm interested in adding some tank mates (other than cories, as I haven't had good luck with them in the past), but not sure if I should or what would work best if I did.

From what I've read so far it sounds like certain tetras can work, as can rasboras or danios. But I know these types of gouramis can be on the aggressive side and I don't want to cause any issues.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Your 20gal tank is a limiting factor. I would add a small school of Tetras. Phantoms, H/T lights, ect. Not big ones, and not the cigar shape ones.
 
Yeah, that's pretty small for a fish that grows to 4-6 inches. Danios, like the gourami, are top level swimmers. So you need something that occupies the lower half. Being a loach nut, how about 6 kuhli loaches?
 
fishorama said:
Yeah, that's pretty small for a fish that grows to 4-6 inches. Danios, like the gourami, are top level swimmers. So you need something that occupies the lower half. Being a loach nut, how about 6 kuhli loaches?
Click to expand...

My plan is to eventually move the Gourami to one of the larger tanks I have, I just need to make room in the house to set one or both of them up. I kept kuhlis several years ago and enjoyed them, but this tank has a gravel substrate, so I'm not sure it would be ideal for them. That's another reason I know cories wouldn't work in this tank.


tanker said:
Your 20gal tank is a limiting factor. I would add a small school of Tetras. Phantoms, H/T lights, ect. Not big ones, and not the cigar shape ones.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured the tank size would be an issue. As I said above I'm planning to eventually move the gourami to a larger tank. What do you mean by a small school? 3-4 fish? Or 5-6? I'm still undecided on whether I should even try adding fish to this setup. Don't want to cause issues. Tank just seems a bit empty with just one fish.
 
5-6 tetras for addition. The BIO load of them would be OK, it is just the size of the Gouramis.
 
I decided to go with 6 Black Phantom Tetras. At first everything was fine, but then a bit later in the day it came time to feed and at that point the Gourami became very aggressive and was chasing the Tetras. I removed him and put him into a spare 10 gallon.

I spoke with my LFS and I'm going to return the Gourami because he is so aggressive (I've never returned a fish before, but I don't have the room at the moment to set up another larger tank for him). He's a beautiful fish, I'm just not interested in keeping something so aggressive at this time. I feel bad taking him back, but hopefully he'll end up in a more suitable living situation.

So as a follow-up question, what might be a less aggressive, good centerpiece fish for this 20tall to go with the 6 phantom tetras?
 
A Dwarf Gouramis.
 
I have a neon blue dwarf gourami, and he can be a little on the aggressive side as well, but I don't think he bothered the other fish as much as yours.
 
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