Gourami with bala sharks?

[SurferGirl]

I want to buy some black tip sharks or bala sharks (maybe 6 i hear that if you want more than one have no less than 6 or one will bully the others) and right now I only have a gourami. He has a history of killing his tank mates (hence why he is the only fish in the tank he even attacked other gouramis lol). If I have him in a 55 gal tank (or larger I was thinking of upgrading) will he try to bite the sharks? Or should I put him in a separate tank? Also, what other fish can be put with black tip sharks or bala sharks?

Edited May 21, 2010 by SurferGirl

[Vitaminz]

Good Morning,

I have a Gourami in my 125G tank, with 8 Bala Sharks, and 2 Oscars, and quite a few Ice Blue Zebra's and they all seem to get along fine. The Gourami, claims his part of the tank, and the only time I seen him chase after the Bala's is during feeding time...

Hope this helps.

[SurferGirl]

Thanks for that. I went to the store where BryanCatfish works and got 4 black fin catfish sharks. I followed his advice and made a leafy hideout for the gourami in one corner, and so far he loves it and has been hanging out there constantly. The sharks swim up to him but he isn't chasing or biting them. They are coexisting peacefully so far. He didn't chase them when they were eating, he probably doesn't care for bottom feeder pellets lol. I was reading about this species online (the black fin sharks) and it says they must be acclimated to brackish as they mature, is this true?

[jvision]

The Black tips do eventually move out into brackish water, and even full marine, as they mature in the wild. Even when they're young, they do well with some salt. You can keep them in fresh water, and they do OK, but it'll be best to plan on moving them into a larger brackish tank in the future.

[SurferGirl]

Would you suggest adding a little more aquarium salt with each partial water change? And for the gourami, should I leave him in the 33 gallon freshwater tank, I do not think gouramis like that much salt. I kind of wanted to progress to a salt water tank anyway, though it's kind of expensive and requires more experience but eventually I would like to have rays and more eels. I have had eels before (1 peacock and 1 moray) and we added some aquarium salt then and the gourami was okay with that (it was only a handful of salt in a 55 gal). How gradually do the sharks usually convert from fresh water to marine?