Need your advice on new fish to get for my 50 gal tank

[ddavis1979]

Getting back to the orginal question on stocking.

Typically if you have a gourami, you have to be aware that other fish like it may be targets of aggression. That would include other gouramis, bettas, and paradise fish. However, rams, angelfish, platies, mollies, guppies and killifish would also be risky.

if you get 4 more harlys to make the shoal more suitable, and 6 more black neons to do the same, that leaves with you a few fun possibilites.

20 neon tetras

OR

10 congo tetras

OR

10 Cherry Barbs

OR

6 Odessa barbs

OR

8 Rosey Barbs

OR

10 Pristella Tetras and a Rainbow Shark

OR

10 Rummy Nose Tetras and a Farlowella Catfish

Is that good to get you started :)

[dman]

Wow, thanks for all the replies!

First of all, when I got the 3 gouramis, I took the advice of the forums about making sure to only have one male. I ended up with 2 females and one male and one of the females is the one that survived. I do like rams and have always thought about getting a pair but I don't know how they would react with the gourami. Same with dwarfs. I really would like another type of bigger fish in there but if any of them will be too risky I will hold off. I would be ok with another unique or cool looking fish (kinda like the pleco I have in there and like the bamboo shrimp is pretty different).

I could up the harlequins and black tetras back to 8 like you all suggested but kind of want something different or different colors in there (actually my wife does!). So you are saying even with 8 of each of those fish that I can add another shoal (or 2 if the number is smaller) of those other fish you mentioned? Or will the black neons school with the larger blue neons? Will the rainbow shark eat the shrimp in there? I also might want to get a few otos again because they seemed to be latched on the glass or wood or something, maybe eating algae.