Venerable Old Age

[dwarfgourami]

I managed to clock up one fishy experience over Christmas; sneaked away from the Christmas shopping and into an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden. Mainly cichlids, but I did pay my respects to a pair of 30 yr old kissing gouramis. They looked a right pair of wrinklies but perky and in good health.

How unusual is this? And what about other gouramis? Any other ones that grown really old?

 

[sylvia]

Realy? 30 year old kissers? They usualy go for about 10 years.

Osphronemus gouramies can live 30 years, possibly more.

The more common species - three-spots, pearls, banded, thick-lipped, moonlight etc - live about 5-7 years. Dwarf gouramies should also be in this category but, due to their unscrupulous mass-production, their lifespan has dwindled to about 2 years - if you're lucky.

Smaller gouramies live shorter lives, general speaking, and larger ones live longer.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I didn't think they looked like osphronemus, but I suppose I could have made a mistake. They were labelled as kissing gouramis.

I've noticed what you said about dwarf gouramis; the shops seem to be swarming with sickly-looking individuals, and far too many for them all to go to good homes. That's why I've gone off them and am planning for pearls when I get my 55 gals. Always thought pearls seem nice anway.

 

[PiNk-PaNtHeR]

Hello!

Hmmmm Very nice and respects to the 30yr old fishie. But I really dont think its a kissing gourami maybe its the Giant Gourami. Thos fish have to be the oldest known fish to stay alive for years. But to the keepers i give them a And as for the fish maybe did it look like this?

 

[sylvia]

That's an osphronemus goramy - actualy, it's a rather young one by the looks of it. If you saw a 30 year old osphronemus, it would be 30 inches long - unmistakeable. They grow extremely quickly. As such, I would think the pair you saw realy were kissers if they were not so obviously huge - just very lucky ones Or perhaps you understood what it said about them incorrectly (though it's not impossible that they lived for that long - 10 years is only an average after all - there must be some extremes).

 

[dwarfgourami]

Of course by now the memory of what they actually did look like is fading a bit. I don't remember them having that giant gourami humped look, but I could be wrong there. They certainly weren't anything like 30 inches long, 10 inches max, I'd say.

I only saw the Swedish label, no Latin name, but from what I remember from my early fishkeeping experiences (yes, I have sinned! mea culpa!), kissing gourami in Sweden denotes the same fish as in England. Unless of course the owner had got things mixed up.

 

[sylvia]

I think I trust the judgement that they were kissers - amazing ones at that! If you ever go again, would you be able to get pics? Just because I'm curious as to what their condition would be like after so many years.