Senegal tankmates: Gourami?

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RoseFishWatcher

RoseFishWatcher

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Aug 8, 2006
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Will some of the larger sized gourami (~6in) make good tankmates for senegal in a 55g?

Size-wise I think they'd be ok, but I don't know if the senegal would be more likely to bother these fish than any others, or how well they'd take it if the senegal did. Nor do I have any clue of other problems likely to occur if I tried this mix. Thoughts or suggestions?




I did in fact get my first bichirs last Sunday! I got 2 senegal. They're currently in the 3-ish inch range and living happily in a 10g. I'm in the process of setting up a 55g home for them, and so far so good. Super excited!

Thanks in advance!

-RFW
 
tried this combination before w/ my P. Sens, it worked out well for me makes the comm tank appear much fuller. IME Gouramis are generally peaceful fish and they are ideal non agressive tankmates. so for me its ok.
 
go for it.
 
I have 7" gourami mixed with lots bichirs (all above 13"), and the mix is OK. I thought gourami is peaceful fish, however, mine seems an exception. It frequently nip off a pcs of tail of a 17" spotted gar. Luckily, it shows no interest on the bottom dwellers.
 
jeffthefish;476784; said:
It seems to me that there is a lot of size variation among gouramis. Do you guys recommend any particular species?

I am also looking for some tankmates for my Polys to put into a 100 gal.
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Snakeskin Gouramis would be your best bet, they get pretty big (over 8") and aren't very likely to become snacks.
 
Would the three-spot gourami be sizeable enough to put with my senegals? Or would I need to choose a larger gourami like snakeskin?


On an somewhat unrelated note, my LFS has a true-giant gourami and it is HUGE. Very cool looking fish, but the poor thing could not even turn around in a 55g tank. Luckly they found it a new home pretty quickly. Certainly going on my list of fish to get if I ever have a massive enough tank though.

-RFW
 
I'd suggest the Snakeskin as the males are more tolerant of eachother and are less common. Just about any Trichogaster species would work though, but Three-Spots can sometimes get aggresive streaks.
 
I've kept both Snakeskin and Blue (Three-spot) Gouramis with bichirs in the past with no problems. I don't have that combination right now because I try to keep fish from the same general area together and all of the Trichogaster type gouramis are Asian rather than African. An alternative, should you want to keep an African labyrinth fish with your P. senegalus, would be any of the larger Ctenopoma species (Bush Fish). I currently have various species in all of my bichir tanks and there have been no issues at all. Ctenopoma acutirostre, the Leopard Bush Fish (sometimes sold as Spotted African Leaf Fish) is an excellent choice for keeping with all but the largest bichirs. I also have Ctenopoma kingsleyae (the largest of the Bush Fish), Ctenopoma weeksi, Ctenopoma ocellatum and Microctenopoma fasciolatum in with appropriately-sized bichirs.

-Joe
 
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