Pearl Gourami *updated 21/5 More Pics!*

[SouthernCross]

Hi everyone

Managed to snap off a reasonable picture (usually I'm terrible and they're all a blur! ) so I thought I'd share it. He's looking nice and orange (must have taken it early in the day, he tends to fade a bit by the afternoon). I did use a flash though so his colours are a bit washed out compared to usual - but still beautiful! He has amazing 'feelers' - they're just as long if not longer than his whole body. Tell me what you think of him!

P.S Sylvia if you're having a squiz - how old do you think he is? All the gouramis when I got him were quite large - I didn't realise HOW large until I saw another pearl for sale somewhere else and it was TINY in comparison. He's probably at least 3 inches from mouth to tail-spot. Also I read in another thread that when they get older they get the finray extensions - it looks like my boy has them a bit doesn't he? (If I'm looking at the right thing of course...). Not sure how long they live either...

When I can finally track down some females I want to get him 2 girlfriends - if they are substantially smaller than him am I likely to encounter any problems? It's just I'm having trouble finding some - I'm not really in a position to be fussy about size but if its gonna be a huge issue I guess I'm going to have to be...is the smaller dorsal good to rely on for sexing even when they're small?

For interests sake - he's very clever, he's figured out that my cories get a wafer every night and if he follows them around all the time and pesters them (he darts at them but I think they're too quick for him - he never seems to get close enough to do any damage, *fingers crossed*) he can get some nibbles on the wafer too...maybe some girls will distract him from bothering my cories!

Oh, if anyone else has got some nice gourami shots I'd like to see them too...this subforum doesn't really have a raging picture thread like a lot of others! Gourami's are beautiful fish but for some reason I don't see a lot of them on the board...

 

[sylvia]

He's very pretty I love pearls And excellent picture!

It's not possible to say how old he is because they'll grow at different rates depending on their environment - temperature, feeding, stress levels etc. Particularly seeing as he'll have been moved from tank to tank before he came to yours. Having said that, he is obviously sexually mature. I would expect him to be around a year old and he still has a little growing to do. They can live to be 7 years old quite easily so he has a long life ahead of him.

With the females, if they are much smaller, he may well react negatively but it shouldn't last long or be severe. Still, it's best to go with females that are about 3", like him. These he'll probably greet in typical pearl fashion - coloring up even more, with any luck.

Sexing young fish can be tricky. The dorsal difference still applies but you probably won't be able to spot major length variations. When they haven't yet begun to develop fin ray extensions, males will have more pointed dorsals though. I personaly preffer to rely on body shape at a younger age. It's only really possible to make the comparison if all the fish you're looking at are the same age and on approximately the same diet though. The females will be plumper - try looking down at them from above (or head on - but watch you aren't tricked into buying fish with dropsy!). Males are noticeably slimmer. Sometimes males will have red-orange ventrals (feelers) whereas the females' have yellow or white but this can be unreliable. Obviously, if you go for the older, and hence larger, fish, sexing will be easy

I remember seeing quite a few stunning pearl photos in the members' pictures section so a search there might be worth it if you want to see more pics... There are a few threads here with gourami pics as well. There are so many people with amazing photography skills - wish I could take pics
I also see the same thing as you do - that fewer people seem to post pics etc in the gourami section than elsewhere. I mean look at the betta people! (And bettas are gouramies too! lol) Actually, I remember a thread a while back about how most people at some point or another keep gouramies - but no one seems to have a particular interest in them (which is a huge shame - livebearers and cichlids and catfish etc all have their devotees - gouramies are certainly just as worth it!). Since then, I think this section has become considerably more active though and I sense gouramies, even if they haven't actually gained in popularity, are at least being acknowledged for the amazing fish that they are.

 

[shilen]

Hello, I'm a newbie too. My tank (60 L Fluval) is four weeks old and I just got my first fish 2 days ago - a fine pair of Pearl Gouramis - pic of the male below (nowhere near as good a Southern Cross's pic!):

They seem to be fine on the whole - they're both eating and generally checking their new home out. However, I do have one question for any Gourami Gurus out there as my male Pearl seems to spend a lot of his time chasing the female away. She now spends most of her time hiding away in the plants - I made sure to provide lots of hiding places - see pic of tank below:

Is this something that will pass with time? I've read that it might be best to keep two females with a male - would it help my situation if I got an additional female?

The female does not seem too stressed as they both still will spend some time together - perhaps a few minutes before the male chases her back into hiding again.

 

[sylvia]

Yes, get at least another female that's around the same size. Though pearls are less aggressive than most gourami species, they don't do well in pairs. With pearls, in fact, the more the merrier - they do wonderfuly in larger groups with 2 or more females per male.

Hold on - 60 litres? That's about 15 gallons and therefore too small for even two pearl gouramies (I'd actually suggest a min. tank size of 20 gallons for any number up to 3). Come to think of it, is it cycled? You should consider replacing your pearls with something more suitable - such as a trio of honey gouramies (Colisa chuna/sota).

 

[shilen]

Hi Sylvia,

Thanks for the advice. My tank is indeed 60l - I was told by my LFS that this would be big enough for these fish and perhaps a small shoal of tetras. That was the plan anyway. It sounds like this is not the case? I'm horrified that I'd be given such duff info and that I may be putting these fish in danger. I bought a book too and this also indicates that it would be ok to keep 2-3 gouramis in a 60cmx35cmx30cm tank. The 2 gouramis I have are pretty small - probably 3cm in body length each. I'm guessing the issue is that they may grow too big for the tank? I did do some reading myself and was working to the 1" of fish to 1 gallon rule. Was I wrong to do this? I guess I was thinking 2 x 4" for the gouramis and 6 x 1" for the tetras (haven't got these yet obviously).

Sounds like I need a whole new plan? I'm a little bit confused and obviously worried for the fish.

Oh and by the way the tank is fully cycled - I ran it for 4 weeks and checked on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels before going any where near any fish. All these were zero or near zero before I bought the fish. Obviously I need to cycle one again before I do anything else?

 

[sylvia]

Right - several things there. I'll start with the most fundamental. Check your ammonia, ntirIte and nitrAte now. What are they?

A cycled tank will almost never have zero nitrAtes. The reason the levels were all at zero before you added fish is precisely that you had not added fish yet Running a tank for a month does absolutely nothing. You need to actually add a source of ammonia - this later gets replaced by the fish themselves as they produce waste...

Simply put... the cycling process goes like this:

Fish produce waste, including ammonia. Ammonia is toxic but is broken down by 'good bacteria' into nitrIte. These bacteria can be sed to 'feed' on the ammonia. They will not start colonizing a tank's filte media and gravel until a source of ammonia has actually been added.

NitrItes are also toxic. Thankfully, there are other bacteria (another 'good' species) that also 'feed' on this and break it down into nitrAtes. NitrAtes are far less toxic. It is important, still, to keep levels below 40ppm - idealy below 20ppm. You do this by changing some water on a regular basis. The more fish you have, the more frequently and the larger the volumes you must change.

The 'good bacteria' take around a 4-6 weeks to colonize a tank that is being cycled using fish. In the beginning you see an ammonia 'spike' as ammonia collects. This drops and nitrIte spikes as bacteria grow that convert the former into the latter. Finally, this nitrIte also drops and nitrAte increases. From then on, a cycled tank will retain zero ammonia and nitrIte levels but the nitrAte levels will continue to rise. As I said, water changes combat this. Plants also help by taking nitrAtes up.

When cycling with fish (which is probably what you have done or are actually in the process of doing), your source of ammonia is the fish themselves. When performing a fishless cycle, the source of ammonia can be fish food (releases it as it rots) or even the pure ammonia sold for cleaning. This method takes far less time - as little as two weeks - mainly because you don't need to worry about water changes and can raise the temperature - both of which speed the process up significantly.


Now about the 'inch per gallon' guideline - it's just that, a guideline. It only applies to slim fish like small tetras anyway but, putting this aside, it does not take into acount activity levels, territoriality, group requirements etc. To illustrate the point, going on this guideline alone, a 10" pleco would work just as well in a 10 gallon as 10 one-inch neon tetras - obviously this isn't right!

It also is supposed to use adult sizes - not current ones. Though I think you know that already.

I use the inch per gallon guideline as a general estimate in terms of how much bioload a tank can handle - but it is no use in deciding minimum tank size requirements or compatibility between different sexes or species.


So the problem with your plan isn't that it violates the guideline but that you will be keeping fish that are pretty active and need some territory in too small a tank. Keeping a pair of pearls is not a good idea in the first place - keeping them in a tank too small for even one makes matters even worse. I would suggest you return the two you have got and replace them with a trio (1 male, 2 females) of honey gouramies - Colisa chuna/sota. Learn the scientific name because they are often mislabelled. These fish grow to 1.5" and are suitable for a 15 gallon. They'd be fine with a school of tetras.

Having said that, just as the term 'gourami' encompasses several species, so does 'tetra'. I'm pretty sure you know this, but not all tetras stay small. Good tetra tankmates for honeys would be rummynoses, neons or black phantoms. Alternatively, harlequin rasboras, spotted rasboras or pygmy cories would work.

Here's something I wrote for people looking to stock smaller tanks: http/www.fishforums.net/Reccomendations-...on-t116208.html Maybe you'll get some more ideas.


Anyway, I think that's all... I know it was a lot lol Don't worry though - I'm sure everything will be fine If you're confused about anything, just ask for a clarification

 

[shilen]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

Let me also start at the beginning. When I said I cycled the tank for 4 weeks I meant 'fishless' cycling. I'm sorry if that was not clear but even I'm not so stupid as to not know that you have to kick start the process with something. I used both small amounts of fish food and a product called Nutrafin Cycle - which says it's a product designed to start the cycling process in new tanks. It contains some 'beneficial bacteria' I think. I have also planted quite heavily so I did also feed my plants with liquid fertilizer during this period. No water changes and a slightly higher temperature setting as you say. I tested fairly frequently and sawt he archetypal ammonia and then nitrite spikes before everything calmed down. My nitrate levels did rise but I think the heavy planting may have kept this low.

So I've done a test today (which is 3 days post fish being introduced) and the readings are: Ammonia = 0.3mg/l or 0.3ppm (my kit seems to test to mg/l but I see from a conversion table that 1mg/l = 1ppm - is that right?). Nitrite = 0.0mg/l and Nitrate = 20mg/l. So I think my tank is cycling fine - right?

As for the fish I totally get what you're saying. I'm deeply frustrated that everything I've been told (by people who consider themselves experts at the LFS) or indeed had read from books has been very misleading to date. I'm really glad I found this forum and decided to post. It must annoy the hell out of you when you see books like mine which state clearly that "Pearl Gouramis are best kept in pairs"?

So the plan now is to take these two fish back. I don't really trust my LFS any more so I need to find a new supplier and I'll look out for Colisa chuna/sota. I also read your '10 gallon post' for inspiration. One question I have is if I cannot find Honey Gouramis what would you recommend as 'starter' fish - the first fish I put into the tank. I've been told (again perhaps incorrectly) that fish like Neon Tetras are not good fish to introduce to a new tank and that I should wait until the tank is mature before introducing these. Conversely I'd been told the Gouramis made ideally 'starter' fish and look where that got me!

Really, really appreciate your help on this - I know it must try your patience no end...

 

[sylvia]

Don't worry about me lol - it's not your fault and you've actually done very well if this is your first tank. I don't mind answering questions, as best I can, if that's going to help people. And your tank sounds like it has been cycled just fine - sorry I assumed it had not been cycled as most people don't know what cycling even is until after they've got fish (thanks to some of those useless LFSs).

That neons aren't good starter fish is definitely true. Are you asking specifically about gourami options BTW? Or just any fish in general? With gouramies, the best for this size tank are honeys. Most others either grow too big or are fragile (or simply not very common).

If you are after general suggestions, platies make excellent first fish - they are best kept in same-sex groups of at least 3 - or else in groups of 2 females per male. I personaly prefer the same-sex groups in smaller tanks because these livebearers breed like crazy. You can always add the opposite sex later. Males stay slightly smaller than females BTW.
Simialrly, mosquitofish are peaceful and tiny livebearers. You could keep several trios or single-sex groups. They are not very colorful but active and exceptionaly hardy IME.

If you want a schooling fish specifically, harlequin rasboras and black phantom tetras are very hardy IME. They should be kept in gorups of 6 (or more when there is extra space available). Harlequins come in a handfull of color morphs as well - though they are not all easy to get hold of. They are the best shoalers IMO - they actually stay tightly packed most of the time. Black phantoms are my favourite tetras. They have character and are subtly beautiful. Males are mostly black with irridescent green-blue markings on their gill cover. Females also have this but also have red in their fins and lack the impressive banner-like dorsal of the males. These fish also change color quite often - from darker to lighter accoding to mood. Displaying males are very entertaining to watch.

American-flag fish, a species of killifish, are another interesting fish to keep and pretty hardy. They do well in pairs but are better kept singly if you plan to include gouramies or other territorial fish in the tank as American-flag fish can get aggressive when breeding. They also like to eat algae and males have striking markings. They grow to about 2" - males being a little larger. Females are more peaceful but not as brightly colored. Full of character though.

There are many options really - but those are the few that come to mind right now. What sorts of fish do you tend to like? Is there anything in particular that's caught your eye?

 

[shilen]

Thanks again - this is my first tank so you've been extremely helpful. I think I may have found another decent LFS - I asked lots of questions and they seem to know more than the last place (they were also clear that a pair of Pearls were not the right choice for my tank).

I like the idea of trying Honey Gourmais but just can't find anywhere near me that has them. The 'new' LFS had some Harlequin Rasboras and some Red Phantom Tetras (not the Black ones you mentioned which look stunning in the pictures I have found). I really like 'shoaling' fish - I want to make sure my tank is a real mix of well developed plants and lots of smaller shoaling fish I think. Given the size and therefore limitations of my tank I think this may be the right way to go. So having given the Pearls back to the original LFS it's time for a new plan. I'm not really a big fan of platies or guppies so I was wondering if Rasboras could be my first fish back into what is still a relatively immature tank? The 'new' LFS thought perhaps they weren't hardy enough and should be introduced later as with Tetras?

I guess the point is, given the small number of fish I can safely keep, I don't want to compromise on the first fish I introduce (i.e. get some Guppies just to help mature the tank and then not be able to get a shoal each of Rasboras or Tetras etc.). Do you have any advice on this? I'd love your views / advice on a stocking plan (timings and numbers) for my 60litre tank given I really like the idea of shoals of small fish.

 

[sylvia]

I would say harlequin rasboras are hardy enough to be added first but, as shoaling fish that need to be in groups, I would not add them all at once. Maybe get 3-4 and make up the number to 6 a week later to give the tank a little time to 'catch up' with the bioload. If you return the gouramies and immediately replace them with the rasboras, that's your best options as the tank will be cycled. If you leave it any significant length of time without fish, you'll need to cycle it again.

Have you seen any pygmy cories around? I would highly reccomend these to go with the rasboras. They are also shoaling fish and very active. They are significantly different in shape, as catfish, so will add interest.

Red phantom tetras are very similar to black phantoms but it's best not to buy anything on impulse - wait and see what else turns up.

Also, what do you think of cherry barbs? I don't think I mentioned these before but they do well kept as trios (1 male, 2 females).

If this were my tank, I'd go for 6 harlequins, 4 pygmy cories and a trio of cherry barbs or honey gouramies or endler's livebearers. That's actually a tad overstocked by most standards - but if you add the fish slowly, they are fine.

 

[Chipie]

Hi everyone

Managed to snap off a reasonable picture (usually I'm terrible and they're all a blur! ) so I thought I'd share it. He's looking nice and orange (must have taken it early in the day, he tends to fade a bit by the afternoon). I did use a flash though so his colours are a bit washed out compared to usual - but still beautiful! He has amazing 'feelers' - they're just as long if not longer than his whole body. Tell me what you think of him!

P.S Sylvia if you're having a squiz - how old do you think he is? All the gouramis when I got him were quite large - I didn't realise HOW large until I saw another pearl for sale somewhere else and it was TINY in comparison. He's probably at least 3 inches from mouth to tail-spot. Also I read in another thread that when they get older they get the finray extensions - it looks like my boy has them a bit doesn't he? (If I'm looking at the right thing of course...). Not sure how long they live either...

When I can finally track down some females I want to get him 2 girlfriends - if they are substantially smaller than him am I likely to encounter any problems? It's just I'm having trouble finding some - I'm not really in a position to be fussy about size but if its gonna be a huge issue I guess I'm going to have to be...is the smaller dorsal good to rely on for sexing even when they're small?

For interests sake - he's very clever, he's figured out that my cories get a wafer every night and if he follows them around all the time and pesters them (he darts at them but I think they're too quick for him - he never seems to get close enough to do any damage, *fingers crossed*) he can get some nibbles on the wafer too...maybe some girls will distract him from bothering my cories!

Oh, if anyone else has got some nice gourami shots I'd like to see them too...this subforum doesn't really have a raging picture thread like a lot of others! Gourami's are beautiful fish but for some reason I don't see a lot of them on the board...

Here's a picture of one of my 2 Male Pearl Gouramis. Has you can see, yours still has some growing to do , especially his fins. He's already beautifull but he will be even more soon. Mine is about 4 inches long. I'm not sure how old he is but my other male is younger and his fins are not fully developped but he's about 4 inches long too. So it's hard to tell the age. And my females are almost as big as the males.

Pearl Gouramis are not as aggressive has dwarfs. Mine are very peacfull. Even with my small Neons and Leopard Danios

Oh and here's a picture of one of my baby dwarf gouramis. He's so cute. He's got long feelers already.

 

[SouthernCross]

Oooh, beautiful piccy Chipie! Thanks for adding that in. Yours has a very obvious spot behind his eye! Though I've been looking at lots of other peoples photos and the colour patterns vary a lot fish to fish.

Even since I took the photo above I've noticed my fish's fin rays are growing longer. I'm sure he'll be even more gorgeous in another 6 months or so. I REALLY need to find him some lady friends, still having trouble. Do you not have any females for your boys? They get along fine?

Your baby dwarf is a sweetie. I tried dwarfs once, but had no luck, had the dreaded 'dwarf gourami disease'. Shame, cos I think they're quite pretty, I love colourful fish. No one seems to have much luck with LFS bought dwarfs, good to see you're successfully breeding some healthy stock!

 

[Chipie]

Oooh, beautiful piccy Chipie! Thanks for adding that in. Yours has a very obvious spot behind his eye! Though I've been looking at lots of other peoples photos and the colour patterns vary a lot fish to fish.

Even since I took the photo above I've noticed my fish's fin rays are growing longer. I'm sure he'll be even more gorgeous in another 6 months or so. I REALLY need to find him some lady friends, still having trouble. Do you not have any females for your boys? They get along fine?

Your baby dwarf is a sweetie. I tried dwarfs once, but had no luck, had the dreaded 'dwarf gourami disease'. Shame, cos I think they're quite pretty, I love colourful fish. No one seems to have much luck with LFS bought dwarfs, good to see you're successfully breeding some healthy stock!

Hi again,
Well yes i've got a nice female and she seems to be getting along just fine with the 2 males. I'll try to find more females for them but it's not easy. The ones i see at the lfs are so young and small that it's really hard to tell which is a female. At first i had a female and a male so i decided to buy some more hoping they would be females but they turned out to be both males. I gave one to my brother who as a 160 gallon tank and had lots of place for him. And he has lots of females.
Yes there can be very different patterns on them. My other male does not have that black dot on the side of the head.

As for the Dwarfs, i'm lucky to have a LFS that has some healthy specimens. I have 5 and never lost one. So i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Here's a picture of the same dwarf gourami fry, he's grown a lot. They are starting to get some colors on them, can't wait to see what color they turn out. The male was a Red Fire Dwarf and the female a Cobalt dwarf.

 

[Birdie]

. I REALLY need to find him some lady friends, still having trouble. Do you not have any females for your boys? They get along fine?

It's a shame we don't live closer ( instead of just about as far apart as it is possible to get ) as I have two female pearls that my boy doesn't like at all

What lovely photographs on this thread - thank you everyone for posting them

 

[SouthernCross]

Yes, it is a pity Birdie! I'm still looking! Found ONE yesterday, but all the fish in that LFS were flicking and didn't think it was the best idea.

Anyway, I'm resurrecting this thread because I took some more photographs tonight (these are done WITHOUT a flash too - this is how he looks most of the time - such beautiful colours!). About a month has passed since the one I posted above, so here's a brand new one for comparison - you can actually see his fin ray extensions have grown a bit more - I can't wait until they look like Chipie's fish!

In the first one he's 'feeling' his reflection up He's so vain, can't get enough of himself

Thought some people might like to see how he's progressing