I am in the process of re-sealing my 75 gallon aquarium to set up as a Giant Gourami (Osphronemus goramy) grow-out tank. I already have his 125 gallon permanent home, it just needs to be transported from my parent's home in Florida to my home in Louisiana. It will be slow-going getting everything set up as I just had a baby and she is sucking us dry at the moment not to mention I am still finishing up my 10 gallon community tank's stocking but I will make sure it is set up properly before ordering him. I will probably eventually start setting aside $20 a paycheck in prep for this tank and get things as I have the money.
Filtration-wise, I plan on doing 14x turnover an hour with external filters. I will be ordering two SunSun hw-304s when the time comes. At 525gph, that puts me at 1,050gph on this tank. Starting out with a 2" fish, this should be sufficient for some time. I also like to stock my filters with 1/4 mechanical and 3/4 biological media, as I take care not to over-feed and I can siphon out most waste and detritus with water changes. I prefer more ground for BB than less work for me. I fishless cycle with 4ppm of ammonia so it won't be an issue adding fish when the time comes.
I would prefer that I had tankmates while he was little, but I honestly may just go with a school of clown loaches (5-7) to grow with him and make some bottom movement as I don't want to re-home smaller fish and don't want an aggressive community later on. As far as decor goes, I'm going to use black sand and some large river rocks as a centerpiece (not too large, I promise! The more swimming room the better!) with the possibility of some fake plants as I read that the Gourami will eat live ones. The rocks will be removed once he is larger, however, to keep the inhibitance of swimming room to a minimum. (I think I just made that word up, lol.)
I would appreciate any personal experience with these fish and any input on my planned set-up.
Thank you!
Suka (sue-kah)
Filtration-wise, I plan on doing 14x turnover an hour with external filters. I will be ordering two SunSun hw-304s when the time comes. At 525gph, that puts me at 1,050gph on this tank. Starting out with a 2" fish, this should be sufficient for some time. I also like to stock my filters with 1/4 mechanical and 3/4 biological media, as I take care not to over-feed and I can siphon out most waste and detritus with water changes. I prefer more ground for BB than less work for me. I fishless cycle with 4ppm of ammonia so it won't be an issue adding fish when the time comes.
I would prefer that I had tankmates while he was little, but I honestly may just go with a school of clown loaches (5-7) to grow with him and make some bottom movement as I don't want to re-home smaller fish and don't want an aggressive community later on. As far as decor goes, I'm going to use black sand and some large river rocks as a centerpiece (not too large, I promise! The more swimming room the better!) with the possibility of some fake plants as I read that the Gourami will eat live ones. The rocks will be removed once he is larger, however, to keep the inhibitance of swimming room to a minimum. (I think I just made that word up, lol.)
I would appreciate any personal experience with these fish and any input on my planned set-up.
Thank you!
Suka (sue-kah)
