Help me to choose friends for Agave

[Lennie]

Agave, my honey gourami is a super social one. The more stocked, or even overstocked the tank is, the happier and cozier he acts and feels. There have been times he has been living in a 125 Liter tank with only bottom dwellers and he got super stressed and glass surfing for weeks. When I introduced him to a 160 Liter community tank with tetras and other mid swimmers, instantly loved it again. Zero glass surfing. Just a happy boy!😄

 

 

So after spending over 1.5 years with this guy, I know he is a social butterfly and bottom dwellers don’t count for him. He finds them boring! 😝Maybe some of you mightve seen it but I removed Agave from the tank he has been in for the past couple months due to my assumption of gold gouramis potentially bullying him. Noone was caught on action, but Agave was acting trapped in one corner.

 

Anyway, out of the plan, I moved him to my juvenile kuhli loach tank. Truly I think 10g is small for him and I will probably increase his tank size soon again. But for now, he needs a small sized schooling fish in a shallow custom made 10g tank with him

The tank has many plants, the current stocking is juvenile kuhlis, black rose shrimp and the honey gourami. I run AC30 there so there is a tiny bit of current for that tank size, nothing too big, but something to keep in mind I suppose. 

 

Any recommendations for the potential schooling fish that are mid swimmers, that would do okay with honey gourami/kuhli temps? 
 

Im considering either CPDs or ember tetras. Orange/yellow is my fav fish color so both showing these colors is plus one for me. I keep hearing embers are super dull and booring (yes @beastie, talking about you! 🤪) so Im not sure 

CPDs look amazing in videos but when I saw them irl, they were not looking like they do in the videos fr. Do they color up like chili rasboras level, or the videos online and actual  fish look does not match that well? Also in my research I kept hearing them eating in mid level and mid level only. So since the tank is short due to being a shallow one, would this be a problem?

Oh also, potential breeding is another positive point for me for any suggestions

I would love to hear from you guys

 

cheers, 

Lennie

[Guppysnail]

The CPD do not look like in videos or photoshopped photos. Only the boys get really colorful and 2-3 girls per boy gives me the best social dynamic with these. Here are mine. HOWEVER their personality and antics as well as social hierarchy dynamics make up for it for me. 
 

Psuedomugil luminatus are great but I think you said they don’t do it for you. 
 

Even in a 10 have you considered getting Agave a girlfriend or even just another honey to pal around with? 

 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/5/2023 at 7:11 PM, Lennie said:

Also in my research I kept hearing them eating in mid level and mid level only

No way. Mine hunt the substrate hard. They are micro predators. They find food period. Mine even nab repashy off the floor and tubifex squished in the wall. 

 

[Fish Folk]

I think Bloodfin Tetras school wonderfully for a Honey Gourami tank. Here’s a couple HGs with Bloodfins…

This photo isn’t from my tank, but shows them up nicely…

[Lennie]

On 9/6/2023 at 3:40 AM, Fish Folk said:

I think Bloodfin Tetras school wonderfully for a Honey Gourami tank. Here’s a couple HGs with Bloodfins…

This photo isn’t from my tank, but shows them up nicely…

The ones available here only have their tails red. These look much nicer.
the ones here look like this:

they seem to have a very slight red on fins but nothing like in the picture.
These guys look bigger than I expect and super active. I bet they would be bored in my tank  shallow tank

 

I also really liked blue king tetras but seriouslyfish says they are super active and even tho they are small they need a big swimming space for their size

On 9/6/2023 at 2:31 AM, Guppysnail said:

The CPD do not look like in videos or photoshopped photos. Only the boys get really colorful and 2-3 girls per boy gives me the best social dynamic with these. Here are mine. HOWEVER their personality and antics as well as social hierarchy dynamics make up for it for me. 
 

Psuedomugil luminatus are great but I think you said they don’t do it for you. 
 

Even in a 10 have you considered getting Agave a girlfriend or even just another honey to pal around with? 

 

I wish I could get him a girlfriend. I havent seen honeys being in stock ever again after I got him. My biggest regret is not getting all 4 in the store that day. Silly me😭

 

In those close up videos, they actually look nice. But from videos that arent super close up, they look pale. It is interesting

 

[Rube_Goldfish]

How about clown killifish? I've never kept them, but everything I've read/seen suggests they are mid- to-upper swimmers, and you could keep a small school in a 10 gallon tank.

[Lennie]

On 9/6/2023 at 11:24 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

How about clown killifish? I've never kept them, but everything I've read/seen suggests they are mid- to-upper swimmers, and you could keep a small school in a 10 gallon tank.

 

Thank you for the suggestion Rube!

I have them in my endler tub. I find them quite boring if I gotta be honest. Also they used to be in this tank and they do jump into the hob. I thought I lost one and during one water change I found it living inside the HOB... ouch 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Lennie

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 9/6/2023 at 4:30 PM, Lennie said:

I have them in my endler tub. I find them quite boring if I gotta be honest. Also they used to be in this tank and they do jump into the hob. I thought I lost one and during one water change I found it living inside the HOB... ouch 

Ah, okay. That's why the "I've never kept them" caveat is so important!

There are a ton of small tetras and rasbora, but I've only ever had cardinal tetras, and I don't know what sort of swimming space the other species would need. My other thought would be a small livebearer, like endlers or teacup platys or something, but I suppose they'd prefer different water from what Agave would want, huh?

[Lennie]

On 9/6/2023 at 11:47 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Ah, okay. That's why the "I've never kept them" caveat is so important!

There are a ton of small tetras and rasbora, but I've only ever had cardinal tetras, and I don't know what sort of swimming space the other species would need. My other thought would be a small livebearer, like endlers or teacup platys or something, but I suppose they'd prefer different water from what Agave would want, huh?

To be fair he has been in everything; from low ph soft water tank to high ph kh gh tank. He seems to be doing fine on everywhere. But the current tank he is in is low ph and  okay amount of gh and kh. My plan was normally dedicating this tank to kuhli loaches only. But he had issues it seems and I dont wanna move him to fishroom in the basement, and keep him in my bedroom tanks instead.

 

The best options I can find right now seems like cpd and ember tetras still. Blue tetras are also a bit agressive it seems, besides their energetic nature

Edited September 6, 2023 by Lennie

[beastie]

I would go with some of the microrasboras, chilli, strawberry, kubotai. Not orange, but small enough that the bioload wont be a problem. active enough to interrest the gourami and it wont eat them, so all good?

Or finally try some of the nannostomus I am dreaming about since you keep stealing all my "want" fish 🙂