Anybody keep Banded Gouramis or have pics?

The June FOTM Contest Poll is open!
FishForums.net Fish of the Month
🏆 Click to vote! 🏆

Aulonochromis

Fish Fanatic
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Messages
157
Reaction score
0
I can't find much info or photos on the net. Are they uncommon? I just got some, and I'd like to know more about them, and I'd especially like to see some good photos of mature specimens. I've found some on the net but they're not really good quality.
 
Sorry I don't have photos but I have kept them in the past so maybe I can tell you something about them that you might find interesting.

For a start, 'banded gouramies' are also known by the names indian gourami, striped gourami and giant gourami. Luckily, 'giant' is a misnomer as they only get to be about 4" at maturity - still, they are big compared to the other colisa species (honeys, dwarfs and thick-lipped). The scientific name is colisa fasciata.

Like other colisa species, they are generaly peaceful towards other fish, including other gouramies. IME, they are quite friendly towards each other as well but the males do like to have a territory and will defend this from intruders - especialy when breeding time comes round. It's generaly best to keep them in a group with one or 2 males and twice as many females but they do fine in pairs provided there's plenty of hiding places for the female to retreat to. A group of males does ok but they need to be in a tank with adequate space and cover for territories to be decided permanently. They appreciate loating plants for cover and a planted tank would suite them well. Sexing them is simple as the males have a much pointier dorsal fin and are noticeably brighter in color.

Like many other gouramies, they are bubblenest breeders and the male cares for the eggs and fry until they are free-swimming. They cannot be bred successfuly in a community or as a group as the fry are tiny (so need special foods) and the parents need to be removed after spawning (the female) and once the fry are free-swimming (the male).

IME, the adults will take pretty much any of the commercialy available flake or pellet diets but live and frozen foods are appreciated and very useful for developing color and conditioning fish. Most also enjoy some vegetation in their diet and all of mine have liked shelled, crushed peas as an occasional change from their usual diet.

Like many other gouramies, they have a labyrinth organ so breathe air similarly to us and would drown without access to it. They also tend to preffer establishing territories in the upper layers but will swim everywhere and can dart around at very high speed if they feel like it. Because of this, it's best to keep them in a spacious tank but with plenty of places to hide and set up boundaries and lots of surface area, particularly for the males, so that they don't constantly bump into each other and start fighting over territory. You'll notice that they 'flare' similar to bettas and that they have long 'feelers' which they use to investigate new objects and each other. These are modified ventral fins with taste buds on the ends. These are sometimes irresistable for nippy fish so make sure you don't have anything that'll take them off. Though they will usualy grow back, this is stressful for the gourami and should be prevented where possible. You may also find the gouramies change color - becoming paler when stressed - and new arrivals will be dull for a while as they settle into their new environment.

I'm not sure of why you couldn't find info or pictures on the net as they are quite common as far as I know.

There's a pretty good pic and other gouramies to compare it to here: http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=54992 He's quite cute :)

Here's another, though somewhat dark: http://www.igl-home.de/bilder/fasciata.jpg
 

Most reactions

Back
Top