Gourami Spitting Out Water In The Air..

[Rhiannon]

Yesterday when I came home (havent been home in 2 weeks, husband been looking after fish while I was in hospital and staying with my mum), I was watching my fish tank and all of a sudden my dwarf gourami came to the surface and spat water out like when you have a mouth full of water and spit it out at someone.

It was the most amazing thing. It went up in the air.

Why do they do this? I'm intrigued.

Thanks

Rhiannon

 

[sylvia]

This is normal behaviour for dwarf gouramies. In the wild they spit, like archer fish, to knock down insects that they can then eat. Many will associate your approach with food in the aquarium and get into a habit of spitting at you

 

[Rhiannon]

Ooo how adorable.

Thanks for letting me know.

 

[fishwatcher]

I had one that used to do that... so cute!!

 

[lljdma06]

I had one that used to do that... so cute!!

Me too, charming little buggers! Got me in the eye once!

 

[gettotank110]

its very interesting i noticed that my gouramies aspecially the gold gouramies i noticed it when drops of water began appearing in the glass top he must of been squirting it through the gap in the back i watched them 1 day and i saw what was going on and iv got to say its very interesting

 

[christianflores]

yea so does my gold gourami,it spits water from the back.when i was watching the tank for my other gouramis i saw 2 of my gold gouramis going to the back of the tank where there is a slight hole for airline tubing cango through and they both started spitting water at the same time.it was quite remarkeble to watch these lil fellas in action.

 

[starsatnight]

spitting gourami's! i can hardly wait to get some of my own. from everything i've been reading, they really are lovely and charming fish. i think i've fallen in love with pearl gourami's - but my tank won't be big enough for more than one.

do any gourami lovers have any other suggestions for me?

 

[christianflores]

well mostly any except for giant gouramis in a 25 gallon tank.but make sure u get a pretty small one cuz if u get a big one u might know that it might get bigger than what ever size it is in right now.i would recommend gold or flame gouramis b/c they can fit a 25 gallon like about 3 adult gold gouramis and 3 flames and maybe some small alge eating fish if u have alge in tank then maybe some bottom feeding catfish for any uneaten fish food.its quite remarkabkle that once they get used to u feeding them,they start going to the top of the water and wait for u to feed them and they follow ur movements in the tank.well good luck on choosing ur fishes.

 

[sylvia]

That many gouramies in a 25 would spell disaster and golds are quite aggressive fish so I wouldn't suggest them in the first place for that size tank - at least not in a mixed group of three.

A trio of pearls would be absolutely fine though. They grow to 4-5" and are surprisingly social fish (by gourami standards). 1 male with 2 females is ideal. Don't put them in first though - cory cats, peaceful schooling fish like harlequin rasboras, common peaceful livebearers (except, idealy, mollies ) and other peaceful fish like a trio of cherry barbs etc work well with them and should go in first - hardiest first so that the tank has extra time to 'mature' after cycling.

BTW christianflores - gouramies do NOT grow to the size of their tank (neither do any other fish if you are caring for them properly). If you put a 2" three-spot (gold) gourami in a 10 gallon, it'll still end up as a 6" or so adult!

 

[starsatnight]

A trio of pearls would be absolutely fine though. They grow to 4-5" and are surprisingly social fish (by gourami standards). 1 male with 2 females is ideal. Don't put them in first though - cory cats, peaceful schooling fish like harlequin rasboras, common peaceful livebearers (except, idealy, mollies ) and other peaceful fish like a trio of cherry barbs etc work well with them and should go in first - hardiest first so that the tank has extra time to 'mature' after cycling.

thanks sylvia! having a trio of pearls sounds wonderful to me! i was starting to think i wouldn't be able to have them in a 25 gallon tank. my wish list (at the moment!) is :

in tank first :
5 cherry barbs (possibly with a few golden barbs mixed in that number as well - the shop i've been looking at has a nice bunch of both goldens and cherries)
2 zebra loaches

in tank second :
5 harlequin rasboras

in tank after a few months :
3 pearl gouramis

actually - looking back at that list, i think i'll be overstocked. is it OK to have fewer of the shoaling fish (barbs & rasboras?)

thanks again for your help!

 

[sylvia]

Cherry barbs actually aren't shoaling fish so you could keep a trio (1 male, 2 females) instead but you'd have to skip the gold barbs. Your wouldn't be too far over then so that combination should be fine.