Honey Gourami as next addition?

[LancsRick]

Right, it's time for a new addition to my slowly-building tank, which is currently at 18/19 cardinal tetras, 8 juvenile corydoras, a few plants, and 190litres of space.

As well as the (potential) Gouramis, I'm adding in a single Botia Striata ASAP, since I seem to have a neverending supply of pond snails attempting to take over my tank at present...

I'm thinking of getting about 4 Honey Gouramis next since they're mid-top dwellers, are very striking, peaceful, and I understand they're also good for keeping the water surface clean.

Two questions really:

1) Reckon I'm on the right track with my logic above?
2) What should I be looking to pay per fish?

Cheers!

 

[Gill]

Honey Gouramis certainly are a stunning addition. Are you going for the Standard Dark Siena males and grey females, Gold M/F, Paprika/Red M/F, or the Golden Sunset M/F. My fave are the standard and the Golden Sunset.
I think a Nice group of males and females(more Females) would be good as you get the males in the best colors that way displaying for the females. Price wise depends on where you are, here I would expect to pay between £1-3 each.

 

[Broomy]

I've got two in my tank, lovely fish.

 

[Matt Warner]

Hi, honey gouramis are lovely. Just go careful if you have got a lot of flow in your tank, as they will get blown about everywhere.

 

[LancsRick]

Not a lot of flow in the tank, but thanks for the heads up.

Am I right in thinking that 4 would be a good school size for the gourami? On my other side note, what's the smallest "correct" group size for a botia striata? There seem to be various conflicting opinions around. Since it's a Trigon 190 with 8 Corys in already, I don't want to overcrowd the ground level, but I really need my snail problem fixing!

Cheers!

 

[LancsRick]

4 Red Honey Gouramis and 4 Botia Striata will be joining my collection on Wednesday . Bye bye snails!!

 

[Antipofish]

Great choice. Im getting some tomorrow

 

[LancsRick]

Well I managed to collect the Gouramis and the Botia today, and I'm so glad that I did.

The gouramis are tremendous fish - a nice splash of orange to the tank, but mainly they're so active, playing constantly, and so free roaming, using the full height (even bottom feeding!) of the tank, that they really are a pleasure to sit and watch.

The botia are very active too (they tried their best to beat their way out of the plastic bag when they were acclimatising, which worried me a little! They're happily shuffling all over every inch of the tank, and in the few hours they've been there appear to have already annihilated my snail issue. I've got some catfish pellets for them since they're not algae eaters, as I don't really want them turning to my plants as a new source of food!

I'm not sure whether it's the new additions, or just coincidence with my old tetras and corys settling down, but they seem to have become MUCH more active since I added the botia and gouramis - maybe because the community tank is starting to get a bit more populated so they feel slightly less isolated and vulnerable?

 

[Tim Harrison]

Gourami are great, I've kept several different species (including honey gourami) in the past and have been fascination by their unique behavior. I am thinking of getting a pair of these little fellas Trichopsis pumila. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_gourami