Getting Gouramis At Pet Stores

[IovaykInD]

When you buy a "regular" gourami at the pet store, are they usually the dwarf species? What is the most commonly sold species of gourami?

Also, will they eat my guppy fry if I put them in the same tank?

 

[sylvia]

Not realy. It depends on the store. The most common would be: Honey gouramies (colisa chuna/sota) which would be the elast likely to eat guppy fry. Dwarf gouramies (colisa lalia), that are relatively good with fry but fragile. Three-spot gouramies (trichogaster trichopterus) that would devour guppy fry, grow larger and are aggressive. The come in several color morphs - blue, gold, cosby, opaline, platinum and lavender - so don't take them to be different species. And, lastly, kissing gouramies, moonlight gouramies and pearl gouramies are quite common. Moonlights get to 7" and would eat fry. Kissers would deffinately eat fry, grow to 8" (often more) and are somewhat aggressive - especialy if crowded. pearls are my favourite fish, beautiful, quite hardy and medium-sized (4-5") but they'd probably eat some guppy fry.

If you want a gourami for a small tank, honeys are the way to go. Learn the scientific name as there are many strains and they may get confused with dwarfs. The scientific name is colisa chuna or colisa sota depending on how up-to-date their sources are. Honeys are hardier than dwarfs and stay slightly smaller (up to 1.5"). They're best kept as trios (1 male, 2 females) with 5 gallons per fish. Alternatively, a single male or a group of females can work but it all depends on what size tank you have...

Which begs the question - what size tank(s) are you considering adding them to? What other fish are in there and how many of each?

BTW, if you're after pictures of the species I mentioned, look at the pinned topics, the fish index and (I must admit my favourite) the images on www.google.com .

 

[IovaykInD]

Well the ones I see in petstores look like the dwarf gourami. How many can I put inside a ten gallon tank? I've been thinking about getting one male and two females. They will be the only fish in the tank. Oh yea, I am using the filter in another tank to get the bacteria colonized so that the tank will be cycled. So if I put them in the 10 gallon, I will put a lot of floating plants such as watersprite. Is there anything else I should know?

Isaac

 

[sylvia]

You shouldn't realy put a trio of dwarfs in a 10 gallon.

If you can find honeys, a trio of those would be fine.

If you can't, you can try the dwarfs ut make sure you plant heavily and provide lots and lots of hiding places. be prepaired to remove 2 of them if they start becoming particularly violent. remember that dwarfs are somewhat fragile and sensitive to fluctuations in water parameters. Make sure the tank is fishlessly cycled before you add them.
The same applies to honeys; though they are hardier.

 

[IovaykInD]

Okay, I will definately plants heavily as I have many plants from my 29 gallon. Especially water sprite, I have loads of it, and I've heard the dwarfs like a lot of floating plants. Should I get the two females first and have them get used to the tank, then get the male? I'll prolly do this so that the male doesn't kill the females while they are acclimating because he's already staked out his territory.

 

[sylvia]

You can if you wish but it's not realy that necessary if the tank has plenty of places for them all to hide. Actualy, it's a good idea. The only reason I'd be a little reluctant to do this is that dwarfs often carry disease. At least if you add them all at once, you're only taking the risk of introducing disease once . I think it would be worth a try though anyway - anything to keep aggression ot a minnimum

 

[IovaykInD]

Would planting the tank with plastic plants be a bad idea? I don't want the plants to scratch the fish, but I have a lot of plastic plants. I don't want to go through the trouble of lighting, c02, ferts...so I want to use plastic.

Isaac

 

[sylvia]

I know exactly what you mean I'm useless with plants myself... I've never even tried using co2 or fertilisers and none of my tanks have strong lighting. I have, however, found a few plants that work perfectly in my tanks without any special care at all: Amazon sword (though that grows rather large for a 10 gallon), java fern, java moss (both need to be attached to rocks/ornaments as you probably already know), hygrophila polysperma (now officialy my favourite plants - grows remarkably quickly so is perfect for gouramies which like tall plants near the surface and you can cut it back and plant the cutting and they'll grow just as well). I've also had success with hygrophila corymbosa, which surprised me as I didn't expect it to do well. However, despite not growing as quickly as polysperma, it's a lovely plant and looks perfectly happy and healthy in a tank with less than a watt per gallon of lighting and no added ferts/co2. I've also used duckweed for gouramies as it never dies but it can take over a tank if you aren't careful and, if it were to cover the whole surface, it could cause gouramies to drown. Having listed all those possible plants, I'd hope you try some of them out. Plastic plants would be fine, mind you, but real plants offer a lot more advantages. Also, dwarf gouramies, being somewhat snsitive, are bound to appreciate real plants which help keep water quality good and, as they breathe air, you also need not worry about excessive aeration being a problem for the plants. Furthermore, when breeding, male dwarfs like to pick off a few small elaves and use them to make his nest. He obviously wouldn't be able to do that with a plastic plant. Not to mention that, if you happened to have fry, real plants support infusoria which fry eat. With a bit of luck, some fry could even survive in the tank without special care if you have a very ehavily planted tank and a filter that dopes not produce a strong enough current to pull the fry.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Lights, co2 and fertiliser?? I've never used any of those things in my gourami tank and the plants are mental in it. So long as the light strip is reasonable (The pink lights seem to do a decent job of it) and use a reflective doodah above it so all the light is directed into the tank, you shouldn't have too many difficulties.
Yes plastic plants are probably ok but you do run the risk of them possibly hurting themselves (although this is normally more of a problem for fish with long trailing finnage, like bettas). On the upside they can't pull them apart or rip them up...on the downside they're fake and therefore less natural to the fish. Mine love the dense undergrowth. The sheer mess of it means they can go hide, sleep, rest etc whenever they wish.
Hugs,
P.

 

[IovaykInD]

Okay Sylvia, you've convinced me to go planted.

I already have amazon sword, java moss, and water sprite in my 29 gallon. Just not enough to add to my 10 gallon yet. The amazon sword is still small in my 29 gallon, but I want to keep it in there, as it is in the living room and I want the tank to look nice. I took some of the watersprite and added it to the 10 gallon. The java moss I got not too long ago and it hasn't grown much yet. I want to let it establish itself in the 29 gallon and when there is enough of it, I will add it to the 10 gallon. I've been looking for java ferns but haven't found any in pet stores yet. It is also too cold for me to get java ferns through the mail right now.

What else is usually found in petstores that I could add to the 10 gallon? I've tried and failed with caboma, hornwort, anacharis, and anubias nana. I'm such a dimwit

Isaac

 

[sylvia]

Hygrophila polysperma is common in LFSs. I'd have never tried it if it wasn't as I'm not inclined to go chasing after plants It literaly grows about half an inch over-night and I cut it back on a weekly basis. Like I said before, I don't use anything special in the tank and the lighting is not strong at all. It would be a perfect choice if you don't want to spend extra on getting plants to flourish.

 

[IovaykInD]

Isn't Hygrophila Polysperma illegal in the U.S.? I've read somewhere that they are invasive and have been banned from the U.S. Finally, a plant that grows so fast, it is not allowed some places. I can prolly sneak some in HAHA..JKJK. I can't seem to find any at pet stores, and I can't get anything in the mail right now.

Oh yea, will dwarf gouramis eat my guppy fry if I put them in the same tank?

 

[sylvia]

Oh I don't know about the legality of it sorry I wouldn't blame them if they had passed a law against it though

Dwarf gouramies are likely to eat some guppy fry, yes, but probably wouldn't be able to get all - especialy not in a heavily planted tank.

 

[IovaykInD]

How large are the fry would you say? Will microworms work fine, or do I have to use something like egg yolk for the first few days?

 

[sylvia]

You'll need to culture some infusoria 9I think there's a pinned topic on culturing infusoria either in the betta section or the FAQ topics - you could also try searching this forum or google - if you still can't find anything, feel free to ask ) for the first few days but microworms work great afterwards - they are what I usualy use.

Wait a minute - are you talking about gourami fry or guppy fry? Guppy fry are huge and will do fine on crushed/powdered flake from the start.