Sylvia's Not Wrong!

[Majjie]

I've read a lot of advice on here from Sylvia - she certainly knows her gouramis

One of the things she often recommends - to keep the smaller gouramis happy - is to add floating plants. I've had Amazon Frogbit for a long time but it didn't really seem to make much difference. The rosettes can get quite big but the little stalklets let quite a bit of light through - it certainly didn't seem to help the aggression of Michael, one of my pearl gouramis - who's in a tank with another male and a female (I know, I know - goes against all of Sylvia's advice - but when I bought Marty he looked very girly - then he grew into a full blooded male ). A bigger tank and more female company is planned - but I need to re-organise the whole house to fit it in .

Anyway, I recently added a largish red Tiger Lotus Lily to the tank - not because I was acting on Sylvia's advice but simply because it had got too big for a smaller tank (where I kept it because of it's relatively high light requirement).

The result: pearl gourami bliss I attach photos to prove it.

Michael has moved his territory from the front left corner of the tank to dead centre - just under the biggest clump of leaves - and, luckily enough, there's a second smaller clump of leaves over Marty's territory in the front right corner. Both sit under their respective leaves, most of the time, and fighting only breaks out at feeding time. Little Myrtle stays at the back of the tank, except at feeding time, but she seems quite happy.

Michael is most definitely a happier fish (the fact that he catches sight of Marty less often - see second pic - may also help )

 

[Castellop123]

Your Gourami's look extremely happy... Your aquarium plants look like their thriving... Well Done...

 

[mlawson]

Nice Tank.
Michael is a great name. Good Choice.

Thanks
Michael

 

[Rhiannon]

A fish called Michael! How cute! Thats my husbands name lol.

P.S love your tank.

 

[sylvia]

Beautiful fish and the aquascaping looks stunning!
BTW, how do you photograph your tank? I can't take pictures to save my life

 

[Majjie]

Thanks everyone for your comments - although, methinks some of you may be a little biased towards the name Michael! I'm just so pleased that he's calmer now.

I'm no expert at photography Sylvia - I have a fairly average digital camera - I simply take loads of photos and delete all the rubbish ones. It was fairly easy with Michael and Marty and their lily leaves, though, because they stay almost dead still "chillin" under their leaves.

Another thing I do is sit on a chair in front of the tank - get the camera focussed on the plants - and then wait for a fish to swim in at the right place - can take hours Oh ... and I always take the pics without any flash, at dead of night when the room is darkest, without the room lights on - to reduce the reflections. I'm going to shut up now ... the more I say, the more wierd I'm going to sound ..... I do go out at night too ... sometimes ..........

 

[sylvia]

Lol You don't sound weird - just fish-obsessed (like many people here!). I doubt I'd be able to improve but I'll try some of the stuff you said - particularly seeing as you don't need any 'special' equipment (though your patience is probably greater than mine).