# Suitable tank mates?



## DragonFish

Recently I've come to own a lovely little Honey gourami who currently lives all by her lonesome in my 10 gallon tank(slowly working on getting it planted with some hardier plants BTW). She is a joy to have, very active and readily eating right from my fingers, but I'm curious.....would there be something else I could add to the 10 gallon along with her? I'm hesitant on getting any other Honeys, as my experience with keeping more then one Gourami in the same tank has never been a good one, so I suppose some sort of small schooling fish would be what I should add? What kind and how many? Or what else would you add if not/instead of schooling fish?


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## eileen

Here is a good Compatiibility chart that I have saved in my favorites. Under fish put Honey Gouarmi and you should be able to see what comes up. Tropical Fish and Aquariums Compatibility In a 10 gal. go with 1" per gallon. so lets say your fishes adult size will be 2" the small schools of tetras will only get about 1" big. It might be good to add a cory for the bottom to get excess food. They only get to be 2" big depending on type. Petco and Petsmart has a chart in the front of the tanks that say the adult size of the fish or you can look under Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums This has a chart that has how big they get and water condition and ph ect...
If you add tetras make sure its a small school 3 or more and they like a planted tank. I have Harlenquen Rasboras and have not lost any of mine they are Hardy tetras and Glow-light tetras, Neon tetras and cardinal tetras are a bit sensitive to water Parameters and seem to get Ich easy. I almost got a Honey Gouarmi for my 55 gal. tank but got a baby angelfish instead. I wanted 1 big fish in my tank. You are smart to only have 1 honey gouarmi as 2 might pair off and be mean to your other fish and a male/male or female/female might cause problems in your community tank. Having the Gouarmi will keep any livebearer fish you might get in check from excess babies good choice.Do not get a Otco. I have not had any luck with them as they seem sensitive to water parameters and I have lost everyone. I test my water weekly do water changes of 25% each week and add Cycle once a week and I have a uv sterilizer/clarififier for my tank so i do not know what it is with that fish. I hope this helps you in getting some roomys for your Honey Gouarmi.


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## Fishin Pole

a shoal of some kind of rasboras or tetras would work for your tank........I would probably up the shoal to 5 or 6 fish, though.........You could get away with 3 cories for the bottom..............With this many fish, your filtration should be top notch and your maintainance should be routine............The reason ottos dont do well in most tanks is due to not enough algae to feed on...........For their size, they are ferocious eaters and usually eat themselves out of food.....As Eileen stated, they do not handle any changes in your water parameters


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## eileen

Interesting on the Oto's, I feed them Tetramin algae crisps and algae waffers that float to the bottom and they still died. I replaced them with Bushy Nosed Plecos. It is the best fish I ever got. Only grows to about 4-4 1/2" but I have a adult female that had babies last year that was only 3" big. They do a great job on cleaning algae from the glass and decorations. I told my sister about them and she bought 2 and it only took under 2 days to clean up her 55 gal. tank. I feed them algae waffers at night before I go to bed so they have enough food. I'm raising 7 baby plecos not even 1/2" big smaller then a dime size. They take awhile to get big over a year or more. Every small tank should get one of these. They are easy to rehome on craigslist if they get to big for a 5-10 gal. tank.


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## DragonFish

so many responses! 

Yes, a tetra or something of that nature was what I was leaning towards. I've had neons on a couple different occasions so I'd like to get something different. When my dad was in possession of my 50 gallon, he'd added a school of Harlenquen Rasboras, but sadly the fell victim to the three-spot Gourami he had...well, save for one whom is now actually hanging out in my 20 long....been wanting for him to kick the bucket for goodness knows how long xD
As for algae control, I had a plastic plant that I'd added to my 10 gallon that apparently had some algae....yet my Honey cleaned it off within a day, so not at all concerned about that. I have two Otos in my 20 actually that are doing wonderfully, nice chubby little buggers, and I feed them on algae wafers.....thats probably why I've still got a ton of algae in there xD But i wasn't thinking about adding any to the 10.
As far as Corys go, I have gravel and its a bit sharp so I don't think that they would be suitable for my tank, I planned to steer clear of them 
So, I'll Id probably add would be a school of some sort^^ I don't want to over load though of course....

That is a neat little site by the way, the compatibility one. I'll look up a few of the tetras listed there and see which ones I like best


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## iamntbatman

Tons of tetras fit the bill. Neons, cardinals, black neons, ember tetras, von rio flame tetras, pristella tetras, bloodfin tetras, lemon tetras, glowlight tetras, etc etc.

Smaller rasboras such as the aforementioned harlequin rasboras would also work well. Smaller non-nippy barbs like cherry barbs would also be a good choice. Platies would also work.


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## 1077

Always liked,still do,, the gold pristella tetras. Cherry barbs would provide lots of activity.


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## DragonFish

I've always been more fond of Barbs then tetras actually and have been looking more into the Cherry Barb and even a couple smaller Rasbora species......may go with one of those 

Just out of curiosity.....if I were to get Cherry Barbs, how many would be suitable?


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## 1077

I would think no more than six. My only concern would be that barbs ,like danios, are quick to snatch any food that hits the water, and gourami may get short changed at feeding time. I might feed the barbs smaller crushed flake first (small amounts) and then feed larger flake to the gourami.


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## DragonFish

Okay, thank you for the heads up  I'll be sure do that and watch carefully. Though my Honey will eat from my hand as well, so I can always feed her that way if needed


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