ANY non-agressive Centerpiece Fish?

[spypet]

how do pearl's deal with potential fin nippers, such as some barbs?

[Sponsors]

[dufus]

i've heard of them dieng from dwarf puffers and bichir bites, but i don't know how much barbs nip. i know in my aquarium book(20+yrs.old, and german translated->english) it says dont putw/tiger barbs. i think they would be a little bit annoid.

[indyglyder]

I would not be put off by the rainbows too much. buy enough of the same species to make a school and they will be happy. one other you can try is the red line barb these should be in a school as well. can be a bit hard to find and pricey though. check out this site for rainbow fish species it may give you some ideas Home of the Rainbowfish

[Mori]

I'd give angels a second thought if you can't find something else. I kept mine with yoyos, small plecos, danios, etc., without any problems. The main troublemakers were the loaches, actually. A tad on the playful side. Angels aren't angels, certainly, but with enough space, they can get along OK with other fish, especially if the other fish are there first. Of course they do vary enormously in temperament so you might get a stinker. But don't rule them out completely!

[dogdoc]

I have a pair of pearl gouramis in my 75 gal. As well as a mixed school of rainbows. Have some yoyo loaches, ottos, and BN plecs too. No aggression problems at all.

[ianmoede]

My pearls are anything but shy, they are out constantly. I would love to get a school of 6+ someday.

[Lupin]

Originally Posted by spypet

how do pearl's deal with potential fin nippers, such as some barbs?

Hi Spypet.

Gouramis are best kept away from potential fin nippers. Even in a large tank, I wouldn't mix long-finned species along with fin nippers like the tiger barbs, serpae tetras and some anostomids.
Cherry barbs and pentazonas are the few barbs I would suggest comapatble with gouramis.

[spypet]

Blue, thanks for the feedback.
I'm going to Petco tomorrow (they get their fish Delivery Wednesday)
if they have a fresh batch of pearls old enough that I can easily
distinguish male/female (I know how), then I'm going to buy a pair.
My Barbs have been very well behaved with every new tank mate thus far,
(they seem to prefer annoying each other than any other tank mates)
so I think I'll get away with it. if not, I can always throw the pearls into
my Crayfish tank as they occupy completely different water levels.

[Lupin]

Originally Posted by spypet

Blue, thanks for the feedback.
I'm going to Petco tomorrow (they get their fish Delivery Wednesday)
if they have a fresh batch of pearls old enough that I can easily
distinguish male/female (I know how), then I'm going to buy a pair.
My Barbs have been pretty well behaved with every new tank mate thus far,
so I think I'll get away with it. if not, I can always throw the pearls into
my Crayfish tank as they occupy completely different levels of the tank.

Lol..Thanks for coloring up my username, spypet.
Good luck with shopping.

[ianmoede]

You know, I'm not sure id worry about fin nippers all that much. My pearls wouldn't take that from anyone, they're very "lively"

[spypet]

Hi, I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed to this thread.
I monitored several LPS this past Month till one finally got in some
medium size 2.5" pearl gouramis. for $10 I got a male&female who get
along well in my tank, and the wide variety of fish in my community.
besides looking nice, they behave differently than my other fish
which makes their contribution to my tank all the more pleasurable.
FYI all the LPS claim they don't usually carry pearls because their
fins often break up in shipping, so they become harder to sell. I
can see how that's possible; fortunately all the fins are intact
my pearls are more active than I expected. they seem very busy
exploring every inch of my tank disturbing other fish in the process.
hopefully once they feel at home, their activities will calm down.

[dufus]

congrats, especially on the pair.

[spypet]

yeah, the kid who netted them first gave me 2 females.
(he was only looking at the color, not the fin structure)
I ran them by the owner (it's a mah&pah pet shop) and
he went back and switched it to get me one Male too.
apparently his last shipment in were mostly females,
so he only had 2 males left out of the dozen in there.
I purposely wanted medium to large pearls to be sure
it would be easier to sex them, so I really lucked out.
I'm going to leave some water lettuce in a corner in
case the male feels like doing some bubble nest art.
I'm not looking to breed them, just make them happy.

[Aqua Dave]

This looks like an older thread, but I'll toss in my 2 pennies. I have 3 angels, 2 rainbows (started with 4), and 2 opaline gouramis in my 150. I think any of them would be good centerpiece fish. The angels can be aggressive (mainly towards eachother), but with enough space and plants this can be mitigated. The rainbows are very nicely colored once they mature. Mine are the ornatus variety and truely look like rainbows. I'll eventually get some more, but I haven't found any that looked good at the LFS yet. The gouramis look nice as well and do not bother any of the other fish. They do kind of freak out easily and will sometimes hide. The one thing with the larger gouramis is they are pigs. They will eat just about anything and will continue to eat. I've found them eating hair and brush algae. Mine are fat to the point that they appear bloated. I've been trying to slim them down, but it's difficult in a community tank.

I personally think the angelfish and rainbows have much more color and character than gouramis. My gouramis just kind of float around while the angelfish and rainbows are always moving about. I like my gouramis, but I wouldn't pick them if I could only have one of the three.

David

[ianmoede]

On the subject of pearl's, MF pairs in smaller tanks can be fairly aggressive. I'd try more of a ratio of 1:4 male to female to see if you could reduce some of the all out aggression directed at the opposite sex.