My Name: Matt
My Gouramie: Chocolate Gouramie
Tankmates of My Gouramie: Mircorasboras (Boraras Brigittae), pygmy corys (Corydoras Pygmaeus), otos (Otocinclus sp.), Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario). Blue Pearl shrimp (Neocaridina Zhangjiensis sp. 'blue pearl')
Harmony in tank: Peaceful. All tank mates carefully chosen so that chocs felt unthreatened. Blue pearls were regularly, they still thrived though as they breed so prolifically. They are definitely happier when in a group, and also when they have peaceful tankmates. I had an endler in with them for a while and they were quite skittish and hid a lot during this time.
I Feed: Staple food was a mix of frozen fare (bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp, baby brine shrimp, cyclops)
and an army of dwarf shrimp (~200) for them to snack on, so they had a continuous supply of live food.
Live daphnia occasionally.
My water temp: 26 Deg C. They do not tolerate lower temperatures. I lost all the fish when my central heating was turned off during a winter holiday and the temp in the tank dropped to about 15deg where the heater couldn't keep up.
My Water pH: 6ish (I think ph is fairly meaningless, more important is a stable TDS. Mine was about 100ppm)
I have bred My Fish: Spawned and held brood in mouth, lost fry though.
Number of eggs: unknown
Diseases/Illnesses experienced: Bought in 2 batches. First batch all healthy no signs of illness. Second batch all died within 2 months of purchase from what appeared to be a bacterial infection.
How I treated the disease/Illness: Used Esha, moved to QT tank, but with no luck.
Current age of Gouramie: no longer have them.
Position in tank: All of tank.
Other points of interest I have observed:
plants:
A lot of sites tell you to have lots of floating plants for cover. A choc gourami's definition of cover is that when you look straight down onto the tank from above they can not be seen. So, while floating plants were good, any large leaved plants (eg amazon swords and anubias) were also perfect for them to 'hide' under. While hiding they can be seen clearly from the front viewing pane of the tank
water chemistry:
The tank was run on 100% RO. TDS going in was about 10ppm. I used to water change enough to keep the Tank around 100ppm tds. They will tolerate higher TDS (eg London tap water of ~350ppm TDS) without any issue if acclimatised slowly (ideally upon importing and slowly over a number of days\weeks by your LFS).
I spent a long time tinkering with peat, indian almond leaves and alder cones in varying combinations. After several months I slowly stopped adding these as I do not think they made any real difference.
I got fed up with the hard work in balancing the tank between blackwater and planted tank so started to phase in some (350ppm) tap water at each water change and some extra ferts. It was a few weeks into this that they spawned. I do not think it was the increased TDS that caused the spawning, but the increased water quality that was a result of the increased plant health.
Coloration:
They are beautiful to look at, when healthy the chocolate is very dark, and the bands go a very bright gold colour. Mine took about 3 months to colour up completely. When stressed the colours go blotchy. When ready to breed the gold and chocolate was complemented with red tinges on the body and fins.
Behaviour:
They continously circled each other. Sometimes quite subtly (slight body twists while a couple of feet away form each other). This never ceased to captivate me, it was as if life was one long dance class! There was a definite pecking order and I got a sense they were all working as one unit on a number of occasions. For example, when one had fry in her mouth all the others were like a swat team circling round her protecting her at all times.
As well as change in colour they exhibit different behaviour when stressed. They will lie on their side and flutter like a leaf. If you have leaf litter in the tank (beech is my leaf litter of choice as it does not affect the water parameters and takes 2-3 months before it starts to decompose significantly) it is very hard to spot the fish.
Stock:
It is very important that the LFS takes good care of these fish prior to your purchase.
If your LFS chucks them straight into tap water upon import then I do not like your chances of keeping them alive more than a few months after purchase.
Pics of my Gouramie:
http
/www.a1matt.co.uk/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=forums%2F160l%2FFish+860.jpg&var2=700_85
http
/www.a1matt.co.uk/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=forums%2F160l%2FFish+769.jpg&var2=700_85
hiding in clear view:
http
/www.a1matt.co.uk/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=forums%2F160l%2FFish+1151.jpg&var2=700_85
starting too get stressed (flaring fins, slightly faded colours):
http
/www.a1matt.co.uk/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=imageview&var1=forums%2F160l%2FFish+1150.jpg
with bacterial infection (see blotchiness), dead shortly after:
http
/www.a1matt.co.uk/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=forums%2F160l%2FFish+1144.jpg&var2=700_85
too many alder cones in the filter...
http
/www.a1matt.co.uk/phpAlbum/main.php?cmd=image&var1=forums%2F160l%2FFish+883.jpg&var2=700_85
will try to get a better pic soon.
