JGonzo

Aloha,

I'm new to the forum, though I've been gleaning information from the site for some time now...

I've got a 12 gallon tank I initially bought for my three-year-old daughter as she adores fish, but I've since become infatuated with it - carefully adding live plants and researching all manners of different species. This aquarium, now that I've taken the time to understand it, has become a very relaxing hobby. I'm already thinking of something bigger.

Currently we've got a Dwarf Gourami and an Angelfish. Any tankmate suggestions are welcome!

Looking forward...

Cheers!
J

COBettaCouple

welcome to fishlore!

we've found it to be relaxing as well.

unfortunately, i'm not sure more fish would be good in that tank. 12g is pretty small for an angel & i'd really recommend a 20g or larger (30g or more is recommended for angels, tall tanks if possible) asap for him. both the angel and gourami are territorial fish and as they get larger, the odds of them fighting increase. you mentioned something bigger and what i'd do is move the angel to the bigger tank and let the gourami stay in the 12g. then you'd have room in both tanks for tankmates and could get that angel up to full size - they're so beautiful as they grow, but as cichlids, they can be grumpy at times.

JGonzo

When the time comes I'll see if my pal who keeps a very large chiclid-stocked tank will take our growing Angel, as he happily took the Chinese Algae Eater that was dining on the Gourami's scales after he had made short work of the algae. I was sad to see him go, but he would have gotten to large for the tank as well. Still looking for a more suitable "janitor" fish.

Any thoughts regarding that, or perhaps other fish suited to co-exist with these fellows? I'm thinking a colorful littly guppy might get on okay.

COBettaCouple

otos and corys make great cleaning crews and get along with a lot of fish.

guppies might get a bit nippy with gourami or vice-versa, but it sometimes works. if you have guppies, all males is the only way to ensure no fry come along. if you have male & female, have at least 2-3 females per male.

MrWaxhead

Welcome fellow nuck hehe, and glad your getting hit with the fish bug, and stumbled onto this site, I only recently found it as well, buts its bar none the friendliest fish site I have come across.

COBettaCouples cleaning crew suggestions are both great choices. I find corries are a bit less of a cleaner per say, but they are fun little fish. My wife refers to them as little puppy dogs from there mannerism. Another good choice in a small tank and are excellent cleaners are shrimp. Amano (japonica/algae) shrimp are great little cleaners, and fun to watch in the tank, they won't breed in a fresh water tank like cherries etc, but they are hardy and get a big bigger and don't get eaten up by gouramis etc.

My four year old is obsessed with my shrimp, he doesn't have any in his tank yet, as he is still learning how to take care of his tank, I will start helping him with plants once he has basic care down, I dropped a couple hardy plants in but mainly I let him do his decorating. He is more at the stage of wanting bubbles and pirate ships in his tank atm anyway hehe.

I strongly believe shrimp need plants to hide and feed on, but they are very fun and beneficial addition to a tank.

Hope you and your daughter enjoy your fish

JGonzo

Thanks guys, it looks like an oto, (or otto?) would be the best way to go. I'm going to give the tank some time to build up some algae again though. Corries, it seems, prefer to be in groups - and I'd like to continue to stock the tank with colorful and preferrably solitary fish for my little one to watch.

The shrimp intrigue me, however. Will they subsist entirely by cleaning the substrate? I thought a snail might be neat too, as they are quite cute... but a mate of mine says they can be quite problematic.

I appreciate all the help guys, and look forward to reading a suggestion or two - though I suppose at this point we're in the wrong thread. My aplogies for that.

Chief_waterchanger

Not a problem.

Once you run out of algae for the oto you can use slices of cucumber or zucchini. (We use zucchini with some of our plecos rather than cucumber, it seems to not get as messy for us.) Also algae wafers can be used. If you get shrimp they will normally eat whatever left over food particles falls to the substrate. Just drop an extra piece of pellet food or whatever you choose to feed the shrimp, in just after you feed the other fish and it should get along well.

Best of luck.

And welcome to the site.

COBettaCouple

many snails can reproduce all on their own and snails tend to be heavy waste producers.