Licorice gouramis

[WhistlingBadger]

Anybody have experience with these little guys? Some sources say they absolutely need live food; others say they can do with frozen and sometimes even freeze-dried. Anybody? @Colin_T @JuiceBox52 @Boundava @anybody else with some good betta on this species

 

[Rocky998]

I've heard of them and seen them... Really stunning fish. But sorry, I don't have any info on them

 

[JuiceBox52]

@Crispii

 

[Rocky998]

Whistlingbadger: *asks specific person for help*

That specific person: *tags someone else without saying a word*

 

[Crispii]

Never kept any of the Parosphromenus species. But with any new fish I get, I tend to feed them exclusively on live baby brine shrimp for one week, just to get them to eat. After the week, I will feed them frozen food. It couldn't hurt for you to try feeding frozen or freeze-dried foods to Parosphromenus. If they don't see them as food or haven't eaten for a long time, you may have to resort to feeding live food.

 

[AmyKieran]

They sound delicious

 

[Colin_T]

Licorice gouramis are labyrinths but not Bettas. Bettas are also labyrinth fishes but are different to gouramis, even though they fight each other.

Small peaceful fish that does best in groups in heavily planted tanks. Soft slightly acid water. No other companions except perhaps some small peaceful bottom dwelling fish (small Corydoras, small species of suckermouth catfish, khuli loaches).

Live foods or small frozen foods. Rarely takes dry foods and doesn't normally take food from the surface. The can be trained onto dry foods but it takes a while and most people use live and frozen foods.

A lovely little fish that won't show any colour at the shop, but do colour up in a well planted tank once the fish have settled in and matured.

Most fish are wild caught and only turn up for a few months each year.

They are a lovely little fish that needs to be kept and bred in captivity so others can enjoy them and so they still exist when wild populations have gone extinct.

If you can get some, buy 10-20 of them and put them in a 4-6 foot tank. A 3 foot tank is the minimum size for 10 fish. They can be kept in smaller tanks but will argue when overcrowded.

 

[GaryE]

I've kept several species, but though I could keep them going for good lifespans, I failed to breed them. My unscientific observations are that the ones kept slightly cooler, at 22-24, seemed to do far better than the ones in warmer conditions. That was for all 3 of the species I kept.

Quiet, cryptic, shy, stunning.

They ate freshly hatched brine shrimp and daphnia. Whiteworms were too big and I had no grindal worms. I never even attempted frozen or dry foods.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My tank is 36" long (about 1m) and 10" wide (about 25cm), and shallow. Is that going to be enough room for a group of six or so?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Hm, might go with sparkling gouramis instead...they're more true to the rice paddy biotope.

 

[Colin_T]

My tank is 36" long (about 1m) and 10" wide (about 25cm), and shallow. Is that going to be enough room for a group of six or so?

yep, but get 8-10

 

[Rocky998]

Can't wait to see this tank when it gets in action! I love licorice gouramis!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Can't wait to see this tank when it gets in action! I love licorice gouramis!

It's already in action! See link in my signature.

Decided to go with sparkling gouramis. Got six of them, and a school of emerald eye rasboras. I'll get a vid up once they're settled in and colored up. After a year and a half, this thing is really looking like a proper rice paddy. Thanks for the feedback, everybody!

 

[Colin_T]

Make sure you have a cover on the tank to stop them jumping out.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have never kept them. The reason was my researching them indicated that they need fairly acid soft water if you want them to spawn and to thrive. That meant I would have to have gotten an RO system to make water I could mix with my tap for this purpose. I resisted that for a long time. Eventually, I committed trying to keeping altum angels which come out of 4.0 pH water and I did get an RO/DI unit. By then I never had open tank space to try keeping licorice.

One of my go to sites for species information Is Seriouslyfish.com. Here is a link to their page on the licorice https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/parosphromenus-deissneri/ you should find it helpful.