Yellow school

[Sweetpickles]

I have been wanting bright yellow in my tank! Preferably a yellow school. I could settle for one or 2 larger non schooling as well. 

I have;

1 super red pleco

4 boliv rams
5 peppered Cory
5 lamchop (het) rasbora
7 danio- (2 pearl, 4 longfin leopard)
4 otocinclus
1 platy
2 Panda Gara

numerous mystery snails (going in for trade soon)

(2 orange and blk calico platty in qt to go in soon)

tank is 36 gal, 78° , ph 7.6

Any suggestions? I have wracked my brain and done research and havent come up with anything but gold barbs. I have a planted tank and want to keep it nice. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Maybe furcatus

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/forktail-rainbowfish

[Lennie]

Hello,

 

You can also check gold white cloud minnows. My friend @beastie  has gorgeous ones. Sad thing is, I couldnt find any that look as good as hers. Everytime I find a good stock they always had black dots here and there and none were that clear gold.

 

Check her journal!

 

 

 

- Gold barbs are way too active and grow a bit big. If you are okay with barbs and their high activity level and size, you can also check rosy barbs. Males are orangey but females remain in gold tones. All those orange pics you see online are the males. This also gives you two different colors in one school.

 

Another option is gold laser cories if you don't exactly want mid column schoolers

 

You can also check yellow mollies. They are the fish that shows the best yellow irl I have seen so far. Not exactly a "schooling" fish, but they like to be in groups anyway yknow. 

 

[Sweetpickles]

On 11/17/2023 at 4:01 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Maybe furcatus

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/forktail-rainbowfish

These have been on my list forever!! I mail ordered a half dozen and they all died😔 I reordered and the same thing happened. So I gave up. Now they are so much more expensive.  I do love nano fish in a large tank! Thanks for reminding me of my first love! 

On 11/17/2023 at 4:06 PM, Lennie said:

Hello,

 

You can also check gold white cloud minnows. My friend @beastie  has gorgeous ones. Sad thing is, I couldnt find any that look as good as hers. Everytime I find a good stock they always had black dots here and there and none were that clear gold.

 

Check her journal!

 

 

 

- Gold barbs are way too active and grow a bit big. If you are okay with barbs and their high activity level and size, you can also check rosy barbs. Males are orangey but females remain in gold tones. All those orange pics you see online are the males. This also gives you two different colors in one school.

 

Another option is gold laser cories if you don't exactly want mid column schoolers

 

You can also check yellow mollies. They are the fish that shows the best yellow irl I have seen so far. Not exactly a "schooling" fish, but they like to be in groups anyway yknow. 

 

I do have mountain minnows in my 20 gal but not the yellow ones. That tank is about 5° cooler. I really enjoy mine. As for the barbs, I had not thought of female rosy barbs. I will look into that! Thank you. That Molly is very pretty too! Thank you so much for the suggestions!

[macdaddy36]

Definitely consider Honey Gourami. They are not a schooling fish but are really yellow and unlike other gourami are completely peaceful. You could do just one but they are a social fish and and a group of 2-4 would be ideal in that size tank. I keep a pair in a 20 gallon at 76-79° and at 8.0pH. The only problem I could think of is if the rams are aggressive so make sure to keep an eye on that if you do get them.

This is not my picture but mine look very similar to that at around 1.5 years old.

[Sweetpickles]

On 11/17/2023 at 4:45 PM, macdaddy36 said:

Definitely consider Honey Gourami. They are not a schooling fish but are really yellow and unlike other gourami are completely peaceful. You could do just one but they are a social fish and and a group of 2-4 would be ideal in that size tank. I keep a pair in a 20 gallon at 76-79° and at 8.0pH. The only problem I could think of is if the rams are aggressive so make sure to keep an eye on that if you do get them.

This is not my picture but mine look very similar to that at around 1.5 years old.

Fortunately my rams don't bother any other fish in the tank, just ea other. I have 4. Maybe a few honey gourami would be nice. Thanks for the suggestion! They are very pretty

[Guest]

@Sweetpickles For yellow schools and themes, I would go for Honey Gouramis and some yellow sakura shrimp as those tend to be EXTREMELY bright and attractive looking. Just my two cents. But if you want something else other than shrimp try Golden Laser Cories (as mentioned above). 

[Sweetpickles]

On 11/17/2023 at 4:45 PM, macdaddy36 said:

Definitely consider Honey Gourami. They are not a schooling fish but are really yellow and unlike other gourami are completely peaceful. You could do just one but they are a social fish and and a group of 2-4 would be ideal in that size tank. I keep a pair in a 20 gallon at 76-79° and at 8.0pH. The only problem I could think of is if the rams are aggressive so make sure to keep an eye on that if you do get them.

This is not my picture but mine look very similar to that at around 1.5 years old.

If I go this route, how many males to females? Also are the females yellow as well? I keep seeing white females.  Maybe those are a different type of honey? 

[macdaddy36]

If you end up with a pair, like what I have, you want a male and a female ideally, but if you don't plan to breed them it shouldn't be a big of deal.

I think I have a male and a female but I am not 100% sure. When I first got them both were less colored, almost white, and both had a black lateral line that is no longer visible. I think the reason they looked different when I first got them is because they were young, but it could also be because they were stressed at the fish store. The female one did have the lateral line a lot longer than the male. I am not sure of the male to female ratio if you have more than a pair, but again, it shouldn't really matter if you aren't trying to breed them.

The picture above is my fish. I think the bottom one is male and the top one female. At one point my male got breeding coloration, which looks like this: 

This image below is a dwarf gourami but especially the pointed vs rounded fin applies to the honey gourami. I'd like to say that I was able to tell the gender at the fish store but I think I just got lucky because it's really hard when they are young.

As for some being white, there are 3 main different types of honey gourami:

Gold Honey Gourami: The yellow kind and most common and the one I have.

Sunset/Red Honey Gourami: These guys look similar to the gold but more red. Be careful because Sunset Thicklip Gourami are commonly mislabeled as Sunset Honey Gourami.

Wild Type Honey Gourami: Never seen these guys but I think they are lighter colored and retain the stripe for longer.

[mynameisnobody]

It just doesn’t get more canary yellow than this. 
The photo is courtesy of Dans fish. 

[Lennie]

On 11/18/2023 at 5:37 PM, macdaddy36 said:

If you end up with a pair, like what I have, you want a male and a female ideally, but if you don't plan to breed them it shouldn't be a big of deal.

I think I have a male and a female but I am not 100% sure. When I first got them both were less colored, almost white, and both had a black lateral line that is no longer visible. I think the reason they looked different when I first got them is because they were young, but it could also be because they were stressed at the fish store. The female one did have the lateral line a lot longer than the male. I am not sure of the male to female ratio if you have more than a pair, but again, it shouldn't really matter if you aren't trying to breed them.

The picture above is my fish. I think the bottom one is male and the top one female. At one point my male got breeding coloration, which looks like this: 

This image below is a dwarf gourami but especially the pointed vs rounded fin applies to the honey gourami. I'd like to say that I was able to tell the gender at the fish store but I think I just got lucky because it's really hard when they are young.

As for some being white, there are 3 main different types of honey gourami:

Gold Honey Gourami: The yellow kind and most common and the one I have.

Sunset/Red Honey Gourami: These guys look similar to the gold but more red. Be careful because Sunset Thicklip Gourami are commonly mislabeled as Sunset Honey Gourami.

Wild Type Honey Gourami: Never seen these guys but I think they are lighter colored and retain the stripe for longer.

That pointy fin sadly dont work for all gouramis. Works for some like golds, pearls, dwarfs. But does not work for some others like honey gourami or sparkling.

Rounded body/belly is very common for many female fish so that is still valid.

 

If I am not mistaken the male picture you shared is the male of a wild type honey gourami. The ones you have in your picture are the "sunset" version. 

 

Sunset type Honey gourami m/f (f on left, m on right)

m breeding dress:

Wild type Honey gourami m/f

[macdaddy36]

On 11/18/2023 at 12:24 PM, Lennie said:

That pointy fin sadly dont work for all gouramis. Works for some like golds, pearls, dwarfs. But does not work for some others like honey gourami or sparkling.

Sorry for causing any confusion. I did notice that with my honey gourami the male has a pointier dorsal fin, but it could be a coincidence.

On 11/18/2023 at 12:24 PM, Lennie said:

If I am not mistaken the male picture you shared is the male of a wild type honey gourami. The ones you have in your picture are the "sunset" version. 

My LFS sold them as 'Gold' Honey Gourami. They also had 'Sunset' Honey Gourami, which were more red in color and lacked the white on the bottom. The pictures of the sunset honey gourami you added do look very similar to mine though, so maybe they go by different common names in different places. Again, sorry to cause any confusion and the Honey Gourami is a great fish!

 

[Guest]

@Sweetpickles I did more research, this stocking is all compatible from what I've seen, if you want activity on all layers. Top and middle water collums Honey gourami (keep your amount of males to females limited, much like their Betta cousin, Males are aggressive while females are more minorly tempered.), The bottom layer is Yellow Sakura shrimp and Golden Laser Corydoras or if you want a more muted yet attractive-looking fish, try Tiger Otocinclus. 

[Sweetpickles]

@KaijuAh, thank you! I would love to add shrimp to this tank. I am afraid they would be snacks for my bristle nose and the Bolivian rams. I do already have 5 Cory's. I am strongly considering the honey gourami. Maybe 3-5 of them. I am going toncheck out the otocinclus you mentioned. I have about 4 right now. I am not sure what kind, but they are not any shade of golden. Thanks so much for your suggestions!

[Sweetpickles]

On 11/18/2023 at 9:37 AM, macdaddy36 said:

If you end up with a pair, like what I have, you want a male and a female ideally, but if you don't plan to breed them it shouldn't be a big of deal.

I think I have a male and a female but I am not 100% sure. When I first got them both were less colored, almost white, and both had a black lateral line that is no longer visible. I think the reason they looked different when I first got them is because they were young, but it could also be because they were stressed at the fish store. The female one did have the lateral line a lot longer than the male. I am not sure of the male to female ratio if you have more than a pair, but again, it shouldn't really matter if you aren't trying to breed them.

The picture above is my fish. I think the bottom one is male and the top one female. At one point my male got breeding coloration, which looks like this: 

This image below is a dwarf gourami but especially the pointed vs rounded fin applies to the honey gourami. I'd like to say that I was able to tell the gender at the fish store but I think I just got lucky because it's really hard when they are young.

As for some being white, there are 3 main different types of honey gourami:

Gold Honey Gourami: The yellow kind and most common and the one I have.

Sunset/Red Honey Gourami: These guys look similar to the gold but more red. Be careful because Sunset Thicklip Gourami are commonly mislabeled as Sunset Honey Gourami.

Wild Type Honey Gourami: Never seen these guys but I think they are lighter colored and retain the stripe for longer.

Thank you for this info! That's very helpful. Your gourami are beautiful. I like that they both are very yellow. 2 of my lfs keep trying to sell me white fish with yellow tips on them. Like a tetra or some other fish and I am like, I want a YELLOW fish! 🤪 not a white fish with yellow. 

 

On 11/17/2023 at 4:45 PM, macdaddy36 said:

Definitely consider Honey Gourami. They are not a schooling fish but are really yellow and unlike other gourami are completely peaceful. You could do just one but they are a social fish and and a group of 2-4 would be ideal in that size tank. I keep a pair in a 20 gallon at 76-79° and at 8.0pH. The only problem I could think of is if the rams are aggressive so make sure to keep an eye on that if you do get them.

This is not my picture but mine look very similar to that at around 1.5 years old.

 

On 11/18/2023 at 9:41 AM, mynameisnobody said:

It just doesn’t get more canary yellow than this. 
The photo is courtesy of Dans fish. 

Wow! Those are very pretty! Thanks for the idea! 

[Guest]

On 11/19/2023 at 5:47 AM, Sweetpickles said:

@KaijuAh, thank you! I would love to add shrimp to this tank. I am afraid they would be snacks for my bristle nose and the Bolivian rams. I do already have 5 Cory's. I am strongly considering the honey gourami. Maybe 3-5 of them. I am going toncheck out the otocinclus you mentioned. I have about 4 right now. I am not sure what kind, but they are not any shade of golden. Thanks so much for your suggestions!

@Sweetpicklesyour, Dont mention it. Just here to (try to) help! I think that shrimp would be fine with you bristlenose plecos. Although give the shrimp colony hiding places like hollow wood, little stone caves, and broad plants to hide in if you do want them, if they do breed, keep an eye on those shrimplets! Those otocinclus although have a yellowy-white tint on their underside not anywhere else, but they still would look very good in my opinion and match your theme of yellow!

[Sweetpickles]

On 11/19/2023 at 8:07 AM, Kaiju said:

@Sweetpicklesyour, Dont mention it. Just here to (try to) help! I think that shrimp would be fine with you bristlenose plecos. Although give the shrimp colony hiding places like hollow wood, little stone caves, and broad plants to hide in if you do want them, if they do breed, keep an eye on those shrimplets! Those otocinclus although have a yellowy-white tint on their underside not anywhere else, but they still would look very good in my opinion and match your theme of yellow!

Awesome! I may try some shrimp!! I think sometimes the lfs owner gets annoyed at my 200 questions🤣 glad I can come here to ask! 

[Guest]

@Sweetpickles lmao. I also would like more ideas on this tank, it seems interesting! Start a journal when it launches! I'm excited to see what you come out with. My recommendations though are, TRY TO AVOID ARTIFICIAL DECOR, use real plants and hardscapes. Any more shrimp questions or questions in general I will be glad to answer! I can make a list of what I think would be nice in your aquarium if you wanted.

I'm not a pro but I reccomend reaching out to people who helped me a lot or gave me inspiration. People like: @nabokovfan87.

Hey, @Fish Folk or @tolstoy21 any ideas for @Sweetpickles's tank? You can give me ideas for a list, your a lot more experienced than me and I think you can help a lot more. 🙂

Edited November 19, 2023 by Kaiju

[Sweetpickles]

@KaijuI do have a list above of what I do already have in my tank. I prob won't be able to fit much more after i add my yellows unless I am replacing. I do have a few plants but would like more. I just threw in some guppy grass, a spiral Val and a spiraled crypt. Here are pics of front and ends of my tank

Here is the front @Kaiju

[Guest]

@Sweetpickles Looks Awesome! You can replace if you want! Might I ask whats the size of that tank?  Also, here's a list of my recommendations for your nice looking tank. If you decide to make a new tank or sell old ones to replace with the new yellow fish. 

Top column dwellers:

-Honey Gourami try a comfortable 2-3 

Mid Dwellers: 

-a small school of Sunburst or Yellow Platies

Bottom Dwllers: 

-A small colony or yellow sakura shrimp or yellow rili if you can find it

-a small school of Gold laser or tiger otocinclus

 

Again totally up to you! Hope all goes well.

For plants although. I would try adding some amazon swords and some cryptocorine. For bottom layers although if you decide on getting those shrimp I keep mentioning, try some dwarf hairgrass or dwarf chain swords. 

[Sweetpickles]

@KaijuKaijuthank you. it's a 36 gal. I have had this tank for almost 30yrs. It sat in my attic for half of that time until I got bored and started watching YouTube videos🤣 then I became a science project for our kiddos and three tanks later.....granted, one is a quarenteen tank always running. I appreciate your great suggestions. I will keep them in mind while shopping and experimenting! 

[Guest]

@Sweetpickles, glad I could be of use! I think in a 36 gal you could fit only a few more fish before the stocking will reach its limit. If you did decide on making a new tank for your yellow school project that would be awesome! But if not you can always add some of the yellow fish to the old one! 

[Lennie]

On 11/19/2023 at 5:34 AM, Kaiju said:

Top and middle water collums Honey gourami (keep your amount of males to females limited, much like their Betta cousin, Males are aggressive while females are more minorly tempered.)

I don't think honey gourami is aggressive at all. I have kept many gouramis and so many bettas, and my honey gourami is angelic. Can it be the golds you read about aggression? Because my golds, especially females, are quite aggressive. Ive kept my honey gourami with some other gourami species and bettas in different setups, and if one was aggressive in those tanks, it was never the honey gourami. I wouldn't really compare honey gouramis to bettas  if you ask me in terms of temperament. In fact, none of my 11 bettas were similar with each other in terms of character.

I know @Guppysnail has many males to a single female ratio as a result of buying a group of juveniles ( like 5m:1f if Im not mistaken), and she has no issues to my knowledge. But ofcourse, if one can choose genders, might be a better idea to go for more females than males.

I understand your willingness to read and learn a lot. But I would highly encourage to read/listen the experiences of people you trust, read scientific papers, breeding reports, and learn mainly from these. We also have many friends in the forum that helps us based on their career, like Duck being a vet or Biotope biologist being biologist for example. Their perspective is also always valuable. Internet is great, but all I can say is, not all info one may obtain is good and true sadly. Or a lot of the times, these info lack experience to base it on. This way, these sort of info can be misleading. If I have never kept honey gourami in 4 different setups and not have friends that keep them in groups, I would hesitate to have them thinking the males are aggressive like bettas after reading this statement. I hope you can see my point there

[macdaddy36]

On 11/19/2023 at 1:20 PM, Lennie said:

I don't think honey gourami is aggressive at all.

This is my experience too.

[Sweetpickles]

You all are very persuasive on the honey gourami! My lfs has a few rn but I have 2 new plattys in quarantine. Prob by December I will have honeys in my quarentine! I will post when and what!! Thanks everyone! This has been fun!