Gouramis and Barbs together?!?!

[Aquamarine]

Hello,

Reading through a few threads, I get the feeling, that there is nothing wrong with keeping the 2 kinds together?

When I first started, I avoided Gouramis as they quite often get attacked by fin-nipping species such as Barbs. Now I have barbs but am still tempted to get a few Gouramis.

What do you all think?

[gm72]

It might be okay but it might not be. I think it is worth a try as long as you have plenty of space to allow territories to be developed and as long as you have enough tanks to allow separation if the experiment fails.

Typically if you have enough barbs they will keep to themselves.

[Kaga's Kritters]

what kind of barbs do you have? that will make a big difference.

[AquaBANG]

gauramis and tiger barbs? I dont think so.

[lasm]

I agree that it depends in what kind of barb you are talking about.

If you want to mix tiger barbs and gouramis, the tiger barb must be in a large shoal, at least 10. Otherwise, the most likely scenario is fin nipping.

But it always depends... what gouramis and what barbs do you want to mix???

[Dave66]

I agree that it depends in what kind of barb you are talking about.

If you want to mix tiger barbs and gouramis, the tiger barb must be in a large shoal, at least 10. Otherwise, the most likely scenario is fin nipping.

But it always depends... what gouramis and what barbs do you want to mix???

lasm,
Easy. Cherry barbs and Gold Barbs. Checker barbs if you keep them in good groups of six or better and wait for them to grow up with those spectacular colors. Clown barbs if you have space.
Six or better of any one or two species would be just dandy with your goramys.
There are a few more but you'd have trouble finding them.
For goodness sakes don't get Tiger Barbs. Even in a school of two dozen, the long fins of the slow-moving goramys would be too tempting to them. Ones I listed would ignore the anabatoids.

Dave

[lasm]

lasm,
Easy. Cherry barbs and Gold Barbs. Checker barbs if you keep them in good groups of six or better and wait for them to grow up with those spectacular colors. Clown barbs if you have space.
Six or better of any one or two species would be just dandy with your goramys.
There are a few more but you'd have trouble finding them.
For goodness sakes don't get Tiger Barbs. Even in a school of two dozen, the long fins of the slow-moving goramys would be too tempting to them. Ones I listed would ignore the anabatoids.

Dave

JAJA, thanks Dave. I just checked my database about communities and that's what I found. It just depends... that's what I meant to say... :11:

What did you mean by being dandy with the gouramis???

[Dave66]

JAJA, thanks Dave. I just checked my database about communities and that's what I found. It just depends... that's what I meant to say... :11:

What did you mean by being dandy with the gouramis???

lasm,
Dandy as in they will patently ignore the goramys, and vice versa. In other words, they won't pick on the goramys at all, the way Tiger Barbs pretty much always will, no matter how many you keep.

Dave

[Collin1104]

yea, my tiger barbs and cherry barb leave my gourami alone.. they have more fun chasing each other around lol

[Aquamarine]

Hi all again,

thanks for the tons of advice. At the moment i keep about 5 Tigerbarbs. ANd I have seen some lovely little red Gouramis. I think I'm going ahead and get those as I have a smaller second tank if things go wrong.