Common name: Banded Gourami

Scientific name: Colisa fasciata

Family: Anabantidae

Origin: North India

Maximum size: 4-5 inches

Minimum Tank size: 20 gallons

Temperature: 76-82 degrees

Care: A timid gourami that will not do well with aggressive tank mates. Does not compete well for food and will quickly starve if bullied by other fish. Does well with smaller, peaceful schooling fish such as neon tetras. This fish does well in planted tanks with plenty of places to hide. This gourami will make excellent use of any hiding places you provide, so you might not see this fish as much as other species of gourami. Males can be kept in pairs since this gourami is not aggressive towards other members of the same sex (although there are always the rare exceptions).

Feeding: Accepts a variety of tropical flake foods. Also excepts live and frozen foods such as bloodworms and brineshrimp. Is also known to eat algae from leaves of plants and rocks.

Sexing: Males are very colorful with vertical orange bars and orange dots on the end of the dorsal fin. Females are noticably fatter when viewed from above, are also more drab in color and more grey then the males. Also look for rounded fins in females and pointed fins in males.

Breeding: A typical bubblenest breeder. Condition both male and female on live foods. This gourami makes a nest in between floating plants and can lay up to 900 eggs in one spawn but this is not common. Soft water with a P.H. of about 5.5 is necessary for eggs to develop and hatch properly.



This post has been edited by Auratus: Sep 2 2006, 04:09 AM