planning way ahead

as you can see I'm stil cycling my 17 gallons and have been studying fish profiles for stocking when it's ready and I know pretty much what I want for it. I am gonna stick with stocking this tank appropriately but after searching so many fish profiles and looking at tanks with those fish on youtube I kinda got the bug so here is the question when I'm more of a fish buff and I want to have 3 platy, 2 honey gouramis, 2 blue rams, 2 sparkling gouramis and schools of cardinal and rummy nose tetras and pygmy cories what size tank do I need to plan for and is that a good group to combine. As I mentionned this is just to plan long term. Thanks.

 

Assuming school size of cardinals and rummynose of 8-10, I would say at least 55G, especially if you're planning to add some bottom feeders like corys or plecos

edit: oh you did say pygmy cory in your post, yeah I would say 55G minimum. Someone else who's actually kept fish before should chime in though.

 

I've kept all of those ( in fact am keeping all of those) except the Platies and the cardinals but I am hopeless at working out bioload when it comes to large community tanks. They are all relatively small fish though an my instant reaction was minimum 55 but if you want a few feature fish and two schools of tetras plus a school of corys, bigger would be better. That way you could have larger schools which would make the tetras happier. The rams can get a bit territorial too so plenty of size and shelter will help.

 

Good morning,

I have seen posts by other members that stated it may not be a good idea to house more than 1 Gouramis per tank. The exception to this is the Sparkling Gouramis. They seem to do well for most folks in multiples.


Ken

 

Hmm. I would also say a 55 gallon or a 75g. You shouldn't keep two types of gourami together. From my experience both honeys and sparkling are peaceful but they will fight each other. To add to that, sparkling gouramis like to be kept in trios at least. Honeys do fine if they are singles or pairs but I wouldn't do more than that.

 

Gourami together: these aren't rules at all just things that have worked for me. I have a honey with 5 sparklings with no trouble. Before that I had two croakings with sparklings. I don't seem to be able to keep croaking gourami alive but there was no aggression. I have a blue and a pearl with no hassles. The pearl is female though. Having said that I would not plan other combinations. The blue and the pearl I tried before I knew better and it still works. I wouldn't put two of the same breed together normally but some need to be like sparkling and apparently chocolate. Haven't tried them Given that I can't keep croaking alive I don't think I am game.

One honey is nice anyway.

 

I wouldn't put two of the same breed together normally but some need to be like sparkling and apparently chocolate.

Pearl gouramis rather being in pairs or trios. Or more, they like their own kind. Honeys like to be in pairs or trios as well.

 

Thanks Jonathon. I have never tried it but I am always open to the advice of people who have tried it and had it work.