My new community tank

[fionah]

Hello,

I have been cycling my tank and hope to get a couple of fish this weekend. I have a 65 litre (approx 17 gallons) tank (w50 x h49 x d34 cm) with an underground filter and air pump. There are a few plants and ornaments suitable for hiding.

My favourite tropical fish that I've seen so far are the gouramis (possibly pearl, neon blue dwarf or other brightly coloured ones), . However, I have read that they are quite difficult to look after and grow quite large. Would they be suitable for my tank? And what is the maximum number I can buy for this size of tank?

I would prefer males as I do not have the experience or tank space for fry.

Along with the gouramis, it was recommended to me to buy some corys, rainbow fish and neon tetras. I'd also love a betta but was told this isn't suitable to mix with gouramis.

I am generally looking for anything brightly coloured. Any recommendations gratefully appreciated.

[DragonGoby]

Hello Fionah and welcome on AC forum!!
You'll see there's a bunch of good people on this forum with huge knowledge about fish.
I don't know for the others, but I will add another kind of filter on your aquarium, because undergravel filters have the bad habits to clog and lose their filtering capacity... I leave the recomandation about the kind of filter to ther other, because I'm not the best one this subject....
If you have a lot of questions you can actually read the e-book, you find it on the side of this page. There's a lot of good advice...

For Gourami, I know that dwarf gourami stay small, about 3 inch, but, once again, gouramis are not my subject (but platies.... ;op ).

If you want corys you certainly can go with 6 or more pygmy corys or even albino corys...

But before all these, try to determine your water parameters : pH, Gh, Kh, to know wich kind of fish would be at home in your aquarium...
You said you had cycled your aquarium, have you already a test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? you'll need these too for the confort of your pets...

So best of luck with your futur little friends and keep us posted!

[doug z]

Welcome, Fionah!

[angelcakes]

hi fi, welcome to ac thumbs2: , i generaly avoid dwarf gouramis i dont have any luck with them :( i wouldn't put bettas in,corys are fine,tetras im unsure of,but if you want tetras i'd go for congo tetras there bigger than neons and great has a schoal of fish,so's clown loaches but they get big!!!! thumbs2:

[jbeining75]

Welcome to AC

[country_boy454]

Welcome to the forum!

[~Erik3.8.07~]

With only 17 gallons it be kind of difficult due to limited size. What i would do is get maybe a couple dwarfs or honey gouramis as kind of the center piece of the tank, and maybe a nice little school of about 8 or so neon tetras, then a few cories. Would make a nice litttle tank i think.

But any of the regular gouramis would be to large in my opinion. I have a pearl gourami and she is almost 5 inches, My opaline gourami probably wont get that big but loves to swim all over the tank and would be very upset if she had a smaller tank.

btw, welcome to the a.c.!!

[gm72]

Fionah, have you kept fish before?

Tetras are so widely varied and colorful that you really can't go wrong there. An all tetra tank can be a beautiful thing to behold and is relatively easy to care for.