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If I wanted to do an all gourami tank, as oppose to cichlids, what would you suggest? I have experience with both types of fish, but not strictly with either of them. I have had wonderful experience with both, but I am sort of leaning toward an all-gourami tank because I wanted to try something kind of new, and also it seems like compatibility issues would be minimal with gouramies instead of cichlids....

I have a 55 gallon tank with a good filter and heater, so most fish should be fine in my aquarium.

In my tank, I have a large Pleco(11 inches). Will this pose a problem to the gouramies?

Thanks.....

Also, If I do go through with this tank idea, what types of gouramies should I put in the tank?

I was thinking possibly a chocolate gourami or two...do you guys have those?

In addition, I was hoping for some color. I've seen pictures of orange, red, blue, silver, pink, and lots of other colored gouramies.

thanks

The big gouramis with spots
(Opaline, Blue, Gold, & platinum)
are kind of aggressive when they get older. They get big.
Pearl Leeri & Moonlight get large but are not often mean.
Dwarf Gouramis max out about 2.5".
Then there are micro Gouramis like Pumilus & chocolate.
So basically I think you could have a nice mixed Gourami tank
bearing in mind that all big fish eat all little fish,
and no fish has ever read a fish book or this forum.

I've got an awesome pair of pearl gouramis I got from Ned last year - the male is simply spectacular (I need to dig up a photo for the photo forum). The female is less colorful but still sweet looking.
A male and a few females would work really well in a 55g (two males and a bunch of females if the tank is really well planted).
Also - alot of chain stores have really poor pearls - usually very weak, die really easily. Ned's are about 5000% better.

Like Ned said, some of the other gouramis, especially the color variants of the "blue" or 3-spot, can be a bit rougher - I used to keep opaline and gold gouramis in with firemouth cichlids. If you decide to mix those I would go with maybe 2 males and 4-6 females.

I think both groups color up better and act less stressed in a nicely planted tank, especially if you have some nice floating plants in there.

The one problem I have with the plants is that I have an 11 inch pleco that will devour them, but i did find some plants that it will not eat. Unfortunately, these plants are kind of expensive because I don't have a job(im 15 years old), but I'm saving up.

Thanks a lot for the good advice....