New Fry At Last

[Fizban]

Miss Dib Dabs' Queenie is a gold three-spot like most of my females?are we talking about the bright yellow females i have cuz i thort Queenie was a darker theres a pic of Queenie on Miss Dib Dabs post the one called
G.gouramie Babies New Pics ..its on page 1 and the pics on her first message ............heres 2 pics of my gouramis i thort this was a gold and a opalines http/i30.photobucket.com/albums/c331/jaz...2/fishh2277.jpg
http/i30.photobucket.com/albums/c331/jaz...82/fishh143.jpg

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Correct Queenie is a gold. She does colour up beautifully, as do all my girls against BB (The male). They put his displaying to the test and make him work hard to get their attention. Some females and males are a much paler colouration then mine but are still classed as golden.
The two 'golds in your pics are exactly that....gold. The male is an opaline. Opalines have no proper 'spots' to see unlike the blues which have defined spots.
Pearls don't especially like 3 spots and find them too aggressive. My 3 spots actually stressed one to death poor thing. I was too late getting her out.
The oldest babies have devolped some markings now. Defo all golds so far.
Hugs,
P.

 

[Fizban]

Queenie is a gold hmmmm i would not have guessed that cuz i thort golds were gold all over i look at Queenie and see a tiger .............how long dose it take for fry to start looking like real gouramis and not tails with heads not shore if i spelled this right i herd some one saying some thing about a lavender typ of gouramis if i have that spelled right or if u no what i mean what color are they?

 

[sylvia]

You can see some lavender three-spots here if you scroll down a bit: http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Gouramis,%...ichogasters.htm

Except for color, they are exactly the same as any other three-spot.

 

[Fizban]

lavender ones look nice i dont have any of them or the platinum gouramis what colors would you breed together to get them 2 colors ..........................oh and i saw it said on that page some thing about color food ??can you get food to brighten there colors i think next time i go to breed the opaline i have i will send a pic of it cuz one of them gos very near too all over black i have not see pics like it on the net but i guess that alot go that color .............

 

[sylvia]

The color change your opaline goes through is just breeding color and nothing to be concerned about.

Lavenders, to the best of my knowledge, come from crossing opalines with golds. I'm not entirely sure of this though and have never tried it myself.

Platinums you can only get by selectively breeding lighter and lighter golds together. You've already seen how not all golds are the same shade. Well platinums are just very, very light colds.

The color food that site talks about isn't anything special. It's just ordinary fish food that includes color-enhancing substances such as 'caritenoids'. They aren't always healthy for the fish and they deffinately aren't necessary. Live or frozen foods, some vegetable foods and clean water are much better for getting your fish to color up brightly.

 

[Fizban]

thanks sylvia i still very suprised how much you and miss dib dabs no about gouramis it like you went to a place and studyed them for a long time ......oh i gave away the gold fish i had after hearing it would not do good in warm water and that they are a dirty fish i thort keeping it with the tropicals would just be bad for both sorts of fish ....dark golds seem to look abit like lavenders ......oh how long should i wait till i put the fry on nomale crushed up fish food i crush up the flake kind in to realy small bits finding difrent foods are hard here ....i dont spose there would be any sort of live food i could find in the wild thats not hard to find ....i dont live in the city so theres lots trees and beachers and a river and stuff like that round the small town ......oh and what thing or things has your gouramis done that you thinks intresting and fun to watch ?

 

[sylvia]

It's not a good idea to take foods from the wild because they often carry disease or parasites or come from polluted areas.

You can start feeding the fry on powdered flake as soon as they are big enough to swallow it. There's realy no way of saying when that will be. You'll just have to watch them and, when you think they look large enough, try feeding them a little crushed flake to see if they eat it.

There's a whole list of things I've found interesting about gouramies. That's why I love them all. You can never stop learning new things about this group. One of my favourite things is simply the fact that they'll eat from my hand and that they seem to be quite intelligent fish. I also enjoy the challenge of breeding and raising them and, of course, they are beautiful.

 

[Fizban]

i like the gouramis cuz along time ago when i was a kid my first try at keeping a tropical fish was a big blue one funny thing is if i rember right it did not have spots but i bleave it was the blue gouramis i no it was not a moon light cuz i no its face was not like the moon lights i think it was probly a female too maby it had spots but just so light you could not see them .............................i like it how when u go over to the tank they all come over to side and just look at you if you look back it looks like there thinking about some thing lol ......i wanted to get all the difrent typs of this fish at first but then i found some look so difrent i did not think they were gouramis now im only intrest in geting ones that are in the same kind of shape as the three spots or moonlights .......im suprised how difrent they act if theres only 2 of them in the one tank like when i was breeding them they realy rip in to each other where as in the big tank they all are realy happy and tend to love being in big groups ....i have about 5 females and 10 males i think .......the fry are grewing fast but still very small.......i have 2 i think there called silver sharks in there as well ones a realy small one but the other i have had a long time and is a bit bigger then the biggest gourami it looks nice and it seems very shy but i no it will get alot bigger one day i was wondering if it might change and try harming the gouramis i have realy small fish in there to and it dose not bother them ether so maby it will be okay later?...........any way any info on gouramis i like to hear im very intrested in them too and later i think i might breed them a fair bit and get anuther tank .....

 

[sylvia]

Hi It's great that you are so interested in gouramies. They are a truly wonderful group.

The bala sharks (also called silver sharks) will be fine but, as they can get to 14", may eat any small fish eventualy. They won't harm your gouramies though and your tank is just about large enough for them. You may want to think about getting one more though as they are schooling fish and do best ing roups of at least 3.

 

[Fizban]

[ i think i will just keep the 2 sharks cuz i am wanting it to be a home mostly for gouramis and the shark seems happy anuth pluss i may add anuther 1 or 2 gouramis now i no abit about wich are male and female may get some more females cuz i only have 5 out of 15 and i want to try breeding difrent color ones too or keep one or 2 of the fry when they grew its funny how u can stroke there heads as they feed and they dont mind most times i think there need for food rules over danger .....what color typ do u have?

 

[sylvia]

At the moment I only have one male opaline. I don't keep three-spots much anymore. I used to have all sorts of colors. I do have lots of pearls (as I breed them quite a lot) but they are all the same sort of color.

 

[Fizban]

2 qestions one i got all the three gold gouramis at the same time one of dose not seem to grew much it seems to look longer in body then what it should look its been like this from when i first got it i saw the same thing with one of the babys from the first batch of fry i had when they were grewing its like it takes a lot longer for them to grew but they still seem happy and dont get bullyedand my other qestion is when breeding do u ever get suprised by some thing thats difrent in the baby then normal like one grews bigger then normal or its missing some color or got a strang patten some thing thats intresting that makes you think about keep that one for shore? oh one last thing do pearls get to the same size as 3 spots or are they smaller?the male opaline is he just a left over from when you would keep 3 spots or is there some thing you real like about him

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Heh, as you can tell I've been off here a few days.
To try and answer your questions.... three spots are one of the larger species of gourami, with the exception of the giants, which are exactly that....giant! I believe they do get bigger then the pearls (Although, not being a keeper of pearls I can't be 100% about that) and are more aggressive.
Fry wise, well I have rather alot currently growing up in my large fry tank and still rather alot in with the adults.
The oldest are now about 5-6 weeks? Some are bigger then the others and the fin shape is beginning to become noticeable in the largest. They have their 3 spots appearing with the one at the base of the tail appearing first by quite a margin. Only the biggest have the belly spot showing.
As my golds have 'tiger' type markings it's more likely that they will become obscured as the colour develops further.
Lavenders are a cross breed of the golds to the opalines...and I suspect it could come about with the blues too in all honesty. Can't say until I get results from my younger girls. Currently all my fry are from my gold ladies.
Food wise, I fed them liquid fry food for several weeks, before bringing in fry older food (not flake but the stage beforehand). I now feed them a mix of the earliest foods mentioned above alongside occassional flake, frozen daphnia and bloodworm. The daphnia is not that popular but the freeze dried is taken a little more readily. They also have alot of plants in the tank that they spend alot of time browsing on.
I will be trying livefood with them in a week or so. Brine shrimp is always a favourite with fry and all fish in fact, as is live bloodworm. But don't try too early, they really are too small for it and it'll just go icky in the tank.
Development wise.....well they lost the look of just being a pair of eyes and practically invisible body quickly. But it's not until now that I'm beginning to see the adult shape forming. The feelers are there, just very very small at the early age. They become noticeable around 3-5 weeks.
None of my babes have any deformities so far, happily.
Yes it is funny how they let you come into contact with them. Queenie is very friendly. Ever since she had her mini holiday last month she's become far more sociable. BB (Big boy) won't deliberately allow contact but doesn't get stressed out when he has eggs and I need to do some cleaning/plant pruning etc at the time. He never stops eating while tending the eggs and if I do a clean he quietly waits for me to finish then checks his area for any eggs that have shifted and puts them back. I don't ever deliberately disturb his handiwork if it can be avoided. Considering when he first started spawning he'd attack and bite me this is a remarkable improvement and shows how much trust/respect we've built up very fast. And since he is boss of the tank his actions rebound onto the girls. If they see him calmly moving out of the way of a clean or waiting for brekkies they follow suit.
Damn I have well adjusted gouramies!! Seems even Spot has stopped picking off the younger fry now as she's grown up. I suspect BB got angry with her for doing so.
Hugs,
P.

 

[Fizban]

welcome back miss dib dab hows Queenie and bb ?? they seem like the ones you like the best .......why are the gouramis in my main tank never intrested breeding in my main tank where they all are?? they dont chase or any thing and i find that odd cuz theres 5 females and 10 males .........................and are earthworms okay to feed as live food i seem to rember reading that them and Mosquito larvae were okay for them to eat ?