Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Species => Gouramis => Topic started by: fcmf on July 08, 2020, 02:08:38 PM
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I tend to think of the sparkling gourami as the obvious choice for a small aquarium. However, for anyone looking for an alternative, here are some suggestions:
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/search/Parosphromenus+ [some beautiful ones here]
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/search/sphaerichthys
Anyone ever kept any of these?
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Yes! Sparkling gourami are wonderful fish with the all the behaviour character of larger gourami in a more compact size. They use their feelers less than larger species but otherwise have the same outgoing, intelligent demeanour. I found they got on well in a community tank including German blue rams. I would love to keep them again and likely will and I would encourage others not to rule out this relatively drab looking fish against more colourful terras due to their more interesting behaviour which will keep the hobbyist far more entertained. I also know people worry about their clicking ability being loud and disturbing. I only believe I heard this once or twice and it was a faint noise only, and I’m not even sure it was them - definitely not something I would’ve worrying about! The liquorice and chocolate gourami have both appealed to me previously but I ruled them out due to their requirement for very soft water.
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Yes! Sparkling gourami are wonderful fish with the all the behaviour character of larger gourami in a more compact size. They use their feelers less than larger species but otherwise have the same outgoing, intelligent demeanour. I found they got on well in a community tank including German blue rams. I would love to keep them again and likely will and I would encourage others not to rule out this relatively drab looking fish against more colourful terras due to their more interesting behaviour which will keep the hobbyist far more entertained. I also know people worry about their clicking ability being loud and disturbing. I only believe I heard this once or twice and it was a faint noise only, and I’m not even sure it was them - definitely not something I would’ve worrying about! The liquorice and chocolate gourami have both appealed to me previously but I ruled them out due to their requirement for very soft water.
Is there any rule as to what size group for the sparkling gourami? Got ember tetras in tank, so think some gouramis would be a perfect fit, along with some more tetra.
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They're not a shoaling species like tetra, and "a pair or small group" is advised (https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/trichopsis-pumila/). Whether or not you'd be able to identify an existing pair, or males from females, when looking at them in the LFS, I really don't know. However, if you did end up with more than one male (which I've read can be aggressive towards one another), I think it would be much less of a problem in a tank of your size than it would be in my little 54L.
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Agreed, I would personally go for a group of greater than 4 or 5 individuals over say a pair, but I will reiterate that they were not as aggressive for me as others seem to have observed.