Hi Guys New To Gouramis

[basboi85]

Hi all I'm new to gouramis an thought I would come in here and say hi beings I now own a gourami a blue spotted gourami to be exact.
Not the best of photos as he/she is quite shy. I promise I'll try and get some better photos

He/she's new home is in my 450L rio 400 so there's plenty of room.

Tank Mates are mollies, platy's and guppies.

I got him/she off my neighbour as he was getting annoyed with it as it kept hitting his heater and thumping against his tank.
My own personal reason for this his tank is well over stocked.

So I did my research to make sure was all ok for my tank even though he has the same fish I wanted to be sure it was ok.

 

[Ruskull]

That's a beautiful female Three Spot you have there!

 

[basboi85]

Thanks and I wasn't sure what the sex was. I'm going to take a few more pics in a couple more hours when the kids have gone to bed and it's not so bright so I can get clearer photos.

For some strange reason I really like the look of them.

So now I know shes a she all I need to know now if it's a good idea to add a couple males and another female

 

[basboi85]

Got a few quick sneaky pics while she was out quickly

Photos taken from my iPhone 4s so not the best quality

 

[Ruskull]

Thanks and I wasn't sure what the sex was. I'm going to take a few more pics in a couple more hours when the kids have gone to bed and it's not so bright so I can get clearer photos.

For some strange reason I really like the look of them.

So now I know shes a she all I need to know now if it's a good idea to add a couple males and another female

Unless your tank is very large you'd be best off adding only females, the males can get very aggressive toward one another.

 

[basboi85]

I have a juwel rio 400 (5ft x2x1.5 450L/118 us g ) I'm planning on getting atleast 30 more plants for my tank so there's plenty of hiding/ territory places.

If adding 2 males is a no go area and I add say 2 more females how does breeding females work ??

Will 1 male breed with say 3 females or once he breeds with 1 he will only breed with one ??

And if I add 2 more females will they fight over territory??

 

[Ruskull]

You may be able to keep a couple of males in a tank that large as long as you have more females than males and plenty of hiding places for them in the tank. Your female is a great looking Blue Three Spot Gourami. You can add other color variations of the same fish if you want, like Gold, Opaline, Lavender, Platinum, etc. Personally I like the Gold & Opaline males best and any color female looks good too.

Gouramis don't pair for life or anything like some other fish do, but every Gourami had their own personality as well. If you want to be sure you have a good community vib,e it still might be best to get just 1 male & maybe 2 or 3 more females. Try to get the females near the same size so that one isn't too much more dominant over the other(s).

 

[basboi85]

Cool thank you very much for your help.
I'll defo add a couple more females and possibly the 1 male in a couple months to see how things progress.

She's come out a lot more now and not so shy anymore. she seems quite happy to swim around the whole tank with the rest of my community fish.

I was even more shocked as I've had a batch of fry in my tank and she left them alone but to be on the safe side and not tempting fate I scooped up all 21 of them !! And now I'm waiting out for another one of my girls to pop another batch as she's been the only one showing that she's preg.

Especially when my neighbour said she kept eating his fry?? I thought she would've ate the fry but she didn't seemed bothered by them. Luckily enough my lfs said they'll take them and I might be able to get a bit more for them as the males in my tank have sail fin plus they never had orange mollies and most of my fry are/ have orange mixed pattens on them, so I might be lucky and have a edge as they don't stock mollies in that colour.

 

[basboi85]

Well I picked up 4 more gourami's yesterday and I'm very annoyed that the lfs has tried palming me off with a opaline gourami with a eye missing and the other eye has pop eye !!! Which I'm not happy about as it has beautiful colours so she'll be going back today as Its not fair for her to be in my tank as she can't see so she won't see the food.

And I picked up 2 honey gourami's and I specifically asked for 4 females and ones a male out the 2 honeys so he's got to go back as my blue spotted female doesn't like him one bit. But I'm not sure whether its because she's double the size of the new gourami's.


Ill post pics later

 

[Ruskull]

Looking forward to the pictures!

 

[basboi85]

Here's a few quick pics until later on when my kids have gone to bed and I can spend more time trying to get decent pics

My new honeys

My blue spotted female

And my new opalines

( this is the one with the missing eye and his other eye has pop eye so I'm going back tomorrow as my mate couldn't take me back today

And here's the other

I apologise for not so good photos I only have a iPhone 5 as a camera

 

[Essjay]

Just one thing - the first pic is of gold gouramis, the same species as the blue three spots and opaline. I know you know that, it's just I thought I'd better mention it as honey gouramis are a completely different, and much smaller, species and I didn't want anyone getting confused

 

[basboi85]

My bad I do apologise I was looking at honeys online and I think the name stayed in my head so I do apologise and my opaline that I said was ill was giving up the will to love earlier today so I done a quick water change to try and perk it up and it gave up tonight so I'm not happy about it as the lfs sold me it basically blind an it obv hasn't had any food for god knows how long.

I even tried putting it in my large DIY fry trap and put a fair bit of food in there so it could eat and it hadnt even touched it after I left the food in there for half hour so it had half a chance of eating but didn't touch any of it.

I put flakes
Blood worm pellets
Algae wafers
And cucumber

 

[Ruskull]

Just one thing - the first pic is of gold gouramis, the same species as the blue three spots and opaline. I know you know that, it's just I thought I'd better mention it as honey gouramis are a completely different, and much smaller, species and I didn't want anyone getting confused

100% true. Those first pics are Gold Gouramis, not Honey Gouramis. They are all Three Spot Gouramis just like the Opalines & Blues that are in the rest of your pictures. Try to make sure you have only 1 male!!!

My bad I do apologise I was looking at honeys online and I think the name stayed in my head so I do apologise and my opaline that I said was ill was giving up the will to love earlier today so I done a quick water change to try and perk it up and it gave up tonight so I'm not happy about it as the lfs sold me it basically blind an it obv hasn't had any food for god knows how long.

I even tried putting it in my large DIY fry trap and put a fair bit of food in there so it could eat and it hadnt even touched it after I left the food in there for half hour so it had half a chance of eating but didn't touch any of it.

I put flakes
Blood worm pellets
Algae wafers
And cucumber

Sorry to hear about the sick fish, hard to say what it might be without knowing more.

 

[basboi85]

I bought the 4 gourami's yesterday and brought them home and got my cousin to let them out the bag for me as I had a hospital appointment with my son.

I made sure he knew what to do. ( asked him what he has to do and he told me " let them acclimatise for 20 mins then every 10 mins for next half hour add some water into the bag to slowly get them used to my tank water) happy days

Once I got home gone 6 pm I noticed the gourami had a eye missing plus its right eye was swollen and had a white crusty patch over it and its was dealing its way around the tank because it obv couldn't see.

Come today when I spoke to my lfs they said bring it back ASAP but my mate couldn't end up taking me and promised to take me tomorrow morning and I think the lack of food at the lfs and stress of moving killed it off so hopefully they will let me have another as I've paid for a fish that was very ill and on its last legs so to speak.

And to make it worse my little girl saw it and it was supposed to be her fish so I've had a distraught child tonight.

I bought the 4 gourami's yesterday and brought them home and got my cousin to let them out the bag for me as I had a hospital appointment with my son.

I made sure he knew what to do. ( asked him what he has to do and he told me " let them acclimatise for 20 mins then every 10 mins for next half hour add some water into the bag to slowly get them used to my tank water) happy days

Once I got home gone 6 pm I noticed the gourami had a eye missing plus its right eye was swollen and had a white crusty patch over it and its was dealing its way around the tank because it obv couldn't see.

Come today when I spoke to my lfs they said bring it back ASAP but my mate couldn't end up taking me and promised to take me tomorrow morning and I think the lack of food at the lfs and stress of moving killed it off so hopefully they will let me have another as I've paid for a fish that was very ill and on its last legs so to speak.

And to make it worse my little girl saw it and it was supposed to be her fish so I've had a distraught child tonight.

To me I think it ended up having pop eye