School of Pearl Gouramis?

[ProudPapa]

Hello,

I'm delivering almost $50.00 (store credit) worth of plants to an LFS tomorrow. I'm trying to think of what to use the credit on. I have one definite male, another probable male, and what I think are three females in my 40 gallon breeder tank. It's heavily planted, so there's plenty of places for them to hide if they need to. Would it be okay to add two or three more? jinjerJOSH22 ?

And I'm asking regarding compatibility, not stocking levels.

 

[ProudPapa]

Soooo . . . my daughter-in-law misses having a tank, and one of her good friends is getting rid of her 55 and made her a very good package deal, including the fish. She has 1/2 dozen or so pearl gouramis that my daughter-in-law doesn't want. Guess who's getting them?

I'm going to start catching the pristella tetras to make room for them. Fortunately I have a 20 gallon long with only a single female guppy and a dozen or so Corydoras pygmaeus, so I can put them in there until I figure out something to do with them long-term. If nothing else I'll take them to 360 Aquatic in Houston the next time I go there to sell stuff.

 

[ProudPapa]

Soooo . . . my daughter-in-law misses having a tank, and one of her good friends is getting rid of her 55 and made her a very good package deal, including the fish. She has 1/2 dozen or so pearl gouramis that my daughter-in-law doesn't want. Guess who's getting them?

I'm going to start catching the pristella tetras to make room for them. Fortunately I have a 20 gallon long with only a single female guppy and a dozen or so Corydoras pygmaeus, so I can put them in there until I figure out something to do with them long-term. If nothing else I'll take them to 360 Aquatic in Houston the next time I go there to sell stuff.

I just put the new ones in the tank a little while ago. One of them hid in the back at first, but now they're all out and about. I couldn't get a picture of all fourteen, but I got most of them.

 

[kansas]

how many males? are these adults?

 

[ProudPapa]

how many males? are these adults?

Yes, they're adults. Only two of my eight originals were female. I believe at least four of the six I added today are females, so the ratio now is much closer to 1:1.

 

[AP1]

Just read through all of this, fascinating thread! How goes things with the 14 gouramis?

 

[MrMuggles]

Looking good! I really love my 3 pearls (2f, 1m). They took a while to develop the pecking order, for a while I thought the male’s harassment and chasing would be too much. But then the females started taking turns defending each other against him, they seem to have formed their own little Neighborhood Watch system. I love watching them put Umami in his place.

Gender difference is obvious early, mine are about 3 inches and very dimorphic, The male has a bright Orange breast and longer, “tasseled” analfin. Females only have a tiny hint of orange and a smaller analfin.

 

[Marlene327]

I missed this post when it first started but have been enjoying your progress and pictures. I'm not the only overstocker in this forum but those of us who do it seem to manage to keep healthy fish. I've never seen a pearl gourami and really enjoy seeing these! I'd need to set up another 40 gallon but eh... I won't be! I almost set up a new 29 once but that's after my surgery when I just didn't have it in me. Maybe later this year, and this gives me a good idea for stocking.

 

[ProudPapa]

Just read through all of this, fascinating thread! How goes things with the 14 gouramis?

It's still going well. It's not unusual for me to see all 14 at once, even when it's not feeding time.

 

[ProudPapa]

A few weeks ago I heard some splashing at night after the lights had gone off. I looked for bodies, both in the tank and on the floor, but didn't find any. Since then I've never been able to count more than twelve, but the tank is densely planted, so while I'm not optimistic that the other two are still there it's possible.

This has always been an experiment, and I certainly didn't intend to wind up with that many. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Marlene327]

A few weeks ago I heard some splashing at night after the lights had gone off. I looked for bodies, both in the tank and on the floor, but didn't find any. Since then I've never been able to count more than twelve, but the tank is densely planted, so while I'm not optimistic that the other two are still there it's possible.

This has always been an experiment, and I certainly didn't intend to wind up with that many. We'll see how it goes.

IF you had bodies in the tank, would these fish clean them up? Or are there shrimp with them? I hope they're just being elusive in the plants. Beautiful fish. It would be a little freaky to hear splashing, I'd always wonder what they were doing!

 

[ProudPapa]

IF you had bodies in the tank, would these fish clean them up? Or are there shrimp with them? I hope they're just being elusive in the plants. Beautiful fish. It would be a little freaky to hear splashing, I'd always wonder what they were doing!

Between the Corydoras trilineatus, snails, cull neocaridina shrimp, and amano shrimp I suspect a body wouldn't last long.

 

[Marlene327]

Between the Corydoras trilineatus, snails, cull neocaridina shrimp, and amano shrimp I suspect a body wouldn't last long.

That's for sure! All those are so necessary in tanks. There's a ton I don't know, but that's something I learned early on.

 

[ProudPapa]

A few weeks ago I heard some splashing at night after the lights had gone off. I looked for bodies, both in the tank and on the floor, but didn't find any. Since then I've never been able to count more than twelve, but the tank is densely planted, so while I'm not optimistic that the other two are still there it's possible.

This has always been an experiment, and I certainly didn't intend to wind up with that many. We'll see how it goes.

I'm happy to report that since then there haven't been any more problems. There are still twelve in the tank, and I don't see any aggression between them. I'll try to post pictures again in the near future.

 

[Motherlovebetta]

Between the Corydoras trilineatus, snails, cull neocaridina shrimp, and amano shrimp I suspect a body wouldn't last long.

It’s kind of amazing how fast even just the amanos work at hiding a body! I had a group of 5 probably almost completely finish off a cory a few weeks back. I’m not sure how it died, but I was watching my tank and didn’t see anything and 2 hours later I saw them all piled up at the front of the tank with it and there wasn’t much left!

 

[Marlene327]

It’s kind of amazing how fast even just the amanos work at hiding a body! I had a group of 5 probably almost completely finish off a cory a few weeks back. I’m not sure how it died, but I was watching my tank and didn’t see anything and 2 hours later I saw them all piled up at the front of the tank with it and there wasn’t much left!

My clown pleco disappeared 2-3 months ago. Have done thorough cleanings and plant overgrowth removals, and that boy is gone. Never a sign of him, he slipped away in silence only the amanos and 25 cories knew about. Very sad.

 

[ProudPapa]

One of them died while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago. My daughter-in-law was feeding while I was away, and she's been keeping fish as long as I have, so I'm confident it was a coincidence that it happened while I was gone. The remaining eleven are still going strong.

I recently removed a big clump of floating guppy grass, but about 1/3 of the tank is a thicket of Cryptocoryne ustiana that's around 15" tall, so there's still adequate hiding places if needed. It's not uncommon to see ten or eleven at one time, and I always see all eleven when I feed them.

 

[Motherlovebetta]

One of them died while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago. My daughter-in-law was feeding while I was away, and she's been keeping fish as long as I have, so I'm confident it was a coincidence that it happened while I was gone. The remaining eleven are still going strong.

I recently removed a big clump of floating guppy grass, but about 1/3 of the tank is a thicket of Cryptocoryne ustiana that's around 15" tall, so there's still adequate hiding places if needed. It's not uncommon to see ten or eleven at one time, and I always see all eleven when I feed them.

I keep meaning to ask. How long has this tank been running? Just curious how long you think your gourami are living mine are about 1.5 y/o I’m hoping to get several more years out of them.

 

[ProudPapa]

I keep meaning to ask. How long has this tank been running? Just curious how long you think your gourami are living mine are about 1.5 y/o I’m hoping to get several more years out of them.

It was initially set up in September of 2019, but broken down and moved to a different location somewhere in mid- to late 2020. (I had started working from home in March 2020. Thinking it would be just a few days I set up on the dining room table, but eventually I had to get the 40 gallon tank off my desk so my wife could have her dining room back.)