chocolate gouramis

[suemack]

got 2 chocolate gouramis from the LFS about 10 months ago - next night came home from work and one was bold and beautiful - the other was faded and hiding at the bottom of the tank. Sat and watched carefully and every time the faded one moved the other would attack! Moved the faded one to one of my guppy tanks as s/he really was not looking great. Later that night he was swimming with more confidence and eating and by morning no problems.

On quite a few occasions I have tried to put them back into the same tank - not going to happen. All my tanks are well planted. They each live in their separate residences feasting on my baby guppies!!!! happy to live with guppies and cories but unable to tolerate any other bigger bodied fish e.g. baby keyholes, angels

has anyone else had problems with these fish being so bolshy. How do you tell what sex they are? Am reluctant to take them back to the LFS as they only got 4 of these fish in and I took 2 - the others died at the LFS - lingered at the shop for a few weeks and seemed to fade away

All of the books I had read said that these were peaceful community fish - picky about their water conditions but 'peaceful'

 

[AquaNut]

Unfortunately, that sounds very much like my experiences with two opaline gouramis. I keep being assured that I just have rowdy, naughty gouramis, and that others are peaceful and do well in community tanks. I must admit that I don't know how any other gouramis would be, long term, as one of my opalines killed any other gourami I ever tried to introduce. They're intolerant of each other, intolerant of other large specimen fish, and lately, one of them has grown intolerant of any little fish who swims too close to his territory, which he's decided is the whole 45 gallon tank. They're gorgeous fish and they exhibit some absolutely fascinating territorial behaviours with no ill effects, but sometimes they get down right aggro in my tank. Regretfully, I have no good advice for you, only empathy.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Suemack!

You are the first person I've run into that actually owned these fish. I don't know much about them but when I saw your post I did a little looking about on the net. It seems that they are not your ordinary, everyday gourami at all.

http/www.aquaworld.netfirms.com/Labyrint...hromenoides.htm

While I've seen information on other sites that indicate they are extremely timid, this site goes so far as to say that in a community tank they will not survive at all. It also indicates that they are mouthbreeders.

Good luck with them. I hope that someone else with experience owning these unusual little fish will respond to your post so we might learn more about them.

 

[suemack]

hi Inchworm

am on rainwater so my water is very soft - I have to add small amounts of African Cichlid mix and Bullseye 7 (less than the recommended dose) else I lose my female guppies - they drop the first lot of babies then seem to get 'eggbound' or something - in the beginning lost about 5 - they would have what looked like grapes hanging out or just get bigger and bigger and sink to the bottom and slowly die.

I've been doing this for about 2 1/2 yrs now and haven't lost any more of the fems - the GH in the tanks is still fairly low - also with the additives don't get the same ph drops

My tanks are all planted with java fern and have floating water sprite - the CG's live with guppies, cories and otos and after a few days definately couldn't be described as timid, occasionally pick on the biggest fem guppy! Apart from the feast of fry every 3 - 4 wks they eat frozen bloodworms, daphnia and brineshrimp will also eat tetra tab min - not fond of flake

They spend a lot of time lurking up in the weed - looking for new babies I think

 

[suemack]

and they like a lot of water changes too