Okay, now *I* want a Giant Gourami - couple of questions about them

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kyryah

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May 24, 2009
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I have to take everything I read online with a grain of salt - anyone can put up a bunch of bogus information and claim to be an "expert." I have done some reading on these huge critters, and I have decided I want one, BAD, but now I am looking for the voice of experience.

Here are my thoughts - 1 gg and 5 clown loaches. Will that combo work?

What size tank? I am thinking 300 gal with a couple of FX5's, is that going to be enough? I am probably looking into getting a tank within the next two-three weeks, and I need to figure out what size to go for. Chances are I will have to special order it.

I did flip through the sticky somewhat, and will do some more, but does anyone have ideas?

Kristina
 
I had one for many years that grew from 3 inches to 20" in only a 90g tank, it was too aggressive to keep with anything so it lived by himself for most of its life.

some people have friendly ones, many have aggressive ones.

a 300g would be fine. the largest I have personally seen is 24" but they can get larger.

just watch the loaches, the gourami will grow at a much faster rate than the loaches and they could become food down the road.

mine used to eat anything. fish food, grapes, lettuce, you name it.

they are great fish.
 
It seems to be general concensis, from what I have read int he sticky too, that it is a toss up whether they can be kept with other fish or not. Hmmm, maybe my best course of action would be to try to find an adult gourami that has been kept previously in a community setting, perhaps one that someone needs to rehome due to outgrowing it's environs.... Worst case scenario, I would have to rehome or retank the loaches.

My loaches are 3-5" right now, so they aren't tiny. Still I understand what you are saying.

Thanks again, and any other info is appreciated. I am admittedly a goldfish person (and yes I know how MOST people on this forum feel about goldies, so no bashing necessary) and therefore I have not really had to deal with agression issues.

Kristina
 
I have two GG's. One is in a 180g tank with heaps of tank mates and no problems - he's about 22 inches. The only fish he's ever hated was an Oscar, even when it was moved to a separate tank the GG would go nuts if he saw it.

The second GG is a pink I have grown from a baby and its about 15 inches now. It hated sharing with anything that swam in the same space (the tinfoil barbs she grew up with got smashed once she got bigger than them. However she is happy to share with 6 clown loaches and two albino gold-spot plecos without any issues at all.

My brother had one that virtually could not share with anything.

In a nutshell, they are all individuals so you'll just have to get one and see how it goes.
 
I find them friendly personally, but then again i had some bad experience with them. The first one i got was a grey gg and he use to bash certain fishes usually the americans.

The next was a pink he was friendly but then i sold my green arrow and added a jardini sure enough he started picking on the jardini.

Now i got a pair of red tail gg's and they are friendly they let al the other fishes pick on them LOL.

What i can recommend is that you have one dominate fish over the giant gourami.
 
Escellent choice of fish for a Pet. Giant gourami's have personality galore and can be trained as most Monsterfish can. A 300 Gallon would be a dream for a single fish as most are kept in much smaller quarters. Just make sure the tank is a minimum of 24 inches wide (Front to Back). They are slow movers and will cruise around the tank.

The biggest tging with aggression is fish that compete within the same swimming level. Middle to top. This limits you to bottom level fish such as Loaches and catfish. I have had several of them that grew up from small fish with others and they never bothered the tankmates as they grew.

The next thing is to keep them well fed. A giant gourami not fed for a few days that gets hungry can turn on tankmates in an instant.

You could also go for the Giant Redtail Gourami as they do not get as large, are very attractive and more peaceful. I usually have a few of them in my fishroom and currently have 3 6 inch fish in a 50 gallon holding tank with some polypterus, a Veiltail Oscar, some catfish and there are no problems with aggression.

Good luck and post your pics when you get them.

www.fishinabowl.com
 
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hi i have a 23in grey gg bought as adult. she is houesd with
clown loaches and over fish which could be easly eaten
and is totely peacefull with everything.
will only eat fruit n veg . i bought a smaller rtgg about 9in and she killed it straight away. so single gg recomended.
 
300 is perfect for one fish. As for tank mates you can't really tell which way they will go, mine has never liked tank mates even at a tiny 3'' he wiped out halve a tank over night. I like the idea of loaches as mentioned about as they swim at different heights but you can't really tell until you get one.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
As streaky said, they do not mix well with other ggs in pairs, odd numbers can work, but I wouldn't try it.
 
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