I got my first fish!

[GouramiFanatic]

It's been a little while since I've been online. I was able to get my first for the tank I have at work. The store didn't have any Opeline or Pearl Gouramis so I ended up with a pair of Dwarf Flame Gouramis. I got them Monday and so far as all is well.

I hadn't done any extensive research on these guys, but from the info posted on their aquariums they're really not that much different from the ones I had intended on getting. It's amazing to me how these fish's personalities are so different. One (the smaller of the pair - there's a slight size difference) seems to be very curious and very active. He's very rarely in hiding and seems to love putting on a show. Although, he seems to get a bit nervous if you make sudden movements or get to close to the tank.

The larger of two is very shy! He's almost always hiding in the big rock formation at the bottom. He hides for about 20-25 minutes and then he comes out to swim around for a few minutes with his tankmate and then he'll go back into hiding. I've read that DFG are pretty shy, but is this much hiding normal? I suppose it's possible that he's out swimming around all night while the lights are out, but it's just so weird that he hides out so much. It's kind of making me nervous that maybe he doesn't like his new home!

Another thing that I was kind of curious about was that it looks like they have 'feelers'. Is that what they really are? They seem to move them around as if they're feeling the surroundings as sort of a guide. It's very interesting!

One last thing, how much should you feed these guys? They're tiny and I know that overfeeding them can be deadly so I'm trying to avoid that. At the same time though I feel as though I'm going to starve them by not giving them that much.

That's it for now. I'm going to try brining my camera into work with me tomorrow or Friday to get some pictures. I hope they come out good!

- Mandy

 

[Blucat]

Congratulations! sorry if this post is long!
I can assume you got two males. Do your dwarf gouramis look like mine? http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=8335 If so a more common name is blood red, fire red, or red dwarf gourami. I have a male pair one fairly smaller than the other (bad choice) for me anyways

Okay, dwarf gouramis are sensitive to noises and sometimes movement. so a warning there not to accidently scare them. as the gouramis do not know you yet, they may hide. mine used to do that but now they love me. they come to the front when they see me. When dwarf gouramis become comfortable in their environment and owners, they will have more personality and be more active.

This hiding in your bigger male is normal, he will be like the other one when he has settled in so cute!!! If your tank is cycled, you have plants and hidey holes, and if your water is right then the gourami will like his new home. something to be aware of, dwarf gouramis do not like bright light very much this could be your shy gourami's prob if it doesn't fix later. some floating plants to block out the light at the water surface will help and will promote more active and personality in the gourami. do you have any plants, live or fake?

the feelers are unique to the gourami. they use these to tough and to taste. you may notice when the gouramis approach they will touch each other with the feelers instead.

Well i feed mine flake food, once a day. my gouramis got two pieces of flake each day when they were younger. start off with that amount and reduce it or increase it if necessary. soon you will be able to "gauge" feeding amounts.

okay.... male pairs
some male pairs of dwarf gourami will get along but usually they won't. like you i got a male pair, one gourami bigger than the other. this has not been good for me as the bigger one dominates the little one and pushes him around. now the little one isn't really active and if you notice in my photos, the little one is a much paler colour. he has dulled his colour to show submission to the other, so the colour won't come back until he doesn't feel so harassed. there is aagression issues and he has some torn up fins. hopefully, i will be getting a third dwarf gourami or some more plants if i get some cash to ease the dominance of the b ig fish. :?

if you want to prevent the agression and colour issues in your pair i suggest:
1. getting a third gourami the same size as the small one so that the big one doesn't pick on the small one all the time.

and/or

2. making sure your tank is at least moderately planted so the little one can get away from the big one. also you could add more hidey holes if not plants. plants are better though so you can see the fish more.

sorry if it is a bit long but this is my experience with gouramis. my gouramis were my first surviving fish when i was a beginner. they are soo cute, they eat from my fingers and follow me across the tank.

 

[fearlessfisch]

Congratulations! Gouramis are some of my favorite fish. Right now I have two dwarf flame and two dwarf powder blue in our tank. Bluecat's reponse was great and said many of the things I would have said about aggression. Gouramis are gorgeous fish, and they really do have wonderful personalities.

The only thing I would add is that Gouramis love a varied diet. I have had much more success in keeping them healthy since I added frozen bloodworms and veggies to their diet on a regular basis. Every few days I rubber-band some lightly cooked broccoli and spinach to a rock and put it in the tank, and my gouramis go crazy happy. They especially love the spinach. Before I started doing this, I actually had one dwarf blue die of constipation.

 

[RoK]

Dwarf's only get to about 2", while pearls and opalines get to 4-5". I kept my dwarf gourami with my bigger gouramis for a little while and it didn't work out to well because the bigger ones were aggressive towards him. You really should decide on keeping either dwarfs OR the pearls and opalines.
Live/frozen foods and veggies are really good for them. They will live on just flakes but a varied diet will allow them to live longer and thrive. Feed a few flakes, don't worry too much about underfeeding, they can go a week or so without eating. If they look to be getting a little bit skinnier then feed more than the last time.

 

[Blucat]

i might just try the live food on a reg basis for my dwarf gouramis. currently they get flake, zuchini, peas and brocolli. only once have they had daphnia when for some reason a large daphnia population appeared.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Ok - Hopefully I cover everything that was asked and mentioned here!

Yes, both of my Gouramis are male from what I can tell. They're both pretty much identical except for the one that's a tad bit larger. When I say he's larger, it's only about a quarter of an inch (if that). Unless they're side by side you can't really see that there's any difference. So far there hasn't been any notable aggression between the two. The larger one is the one who's in hiding most of the time (although with each day he's been coming out more and more often), but when he's out they seem to enjoy each other's company and swim side by side.

As of right now, I only have fake plants in the tank. However, I'm looking into purchasing some live plants for them as well. Are there any plants in particular that I should or should not get? Will I have to do anything new to the tank to acclimate the live plants?

About the feelers, I absolutely adore these little guys' feelers! I know that probably sounds a bit corny, but I can't help it! One thing that I noticed is when they do meet up in the tank they extend their feelers to touch each other. It almost looks like they're trying to embrace each other. It's so adorable!

I have decided that I'm going to stick with the Dwarf Gouramis in this tank. I will not be adding the Opaline or Pearl Gouramis. I have read here and there that you can mix them together with some caution, but since this is the first tank that I'm in charge of, I'd like to keep the 'drama' as minimal as possible.

As far as their diet goes, I have started feeding them a little bit of flake food daily. Today I went to the store and picked up some extras; blood worms, tubifix worms, and brine shrimp. I'm also very interested in trying the broccili idea. That sounds really interesting!

Well, this is my first day without seeing my little guys and I kind of miss them. I'm actually anxious for Monday so I can go to work! If someone told me that I'd be getting so attached to a couple of fish I'd tell them they were crazy, but here I am getting attached!

- Mandy


***** EDIT ***** Just wanted to let you know that I uploaded some photos into my gallery.

 

[RoK]

Glad you're having fun with them. You said you bought some bloodworms, tubifex, and brine shrimp, are they frozen, live, or freeze-dried?

 

[GouramiFanatic]

The food I bought today are freeze dried. Is there a big nutrition value between live, frozen, and freeze dried? I didn't think it mattered.

- Mandy

 

[RoK]

The food I bought today are freeze dried. Is there a big nutrition value between live, frozen, and freeze dried? I didn't think it mattered.

- Mandy

Yes, a big difference. Live is the healthiest, then frozen, then freeze-dried.

 

[dr_girlfriend]

Cool fish!! I have a male and female pair of the same variety. My male actually lost his feelers (probably while he was harassing the female ) As far as floating plants, pennywort is really good. Its easy to grow, and grows pretty fast ( I have some pics in my gallery of it). I have some foxtail floating in my tank right now, and he really seems to love making nests in that. My female likes to hide in my anubias plant, which is also an easy plant to grow. If you wanted a few easy plants for them to hide in, a few bushy anubias' would be a good start.
I feed mine a staple flake from tetra. I just crush it up real good for their tiny mouths. They also will eat anything else they can find, including sinking wafers, or shrimp pellets for my cory.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

fearlessfisch - I have a few questions about feeding the broccoli and spinach. When you feed broccoli or spinach to your Gouramis how much do you give them? Do you give them a certain amount of time to eat what they can and then take what's left out? When you feed this to them do you also feed them their flakes (or whatever else their main diet consists of) or is it just the broccoli or spinach for the day?

I'm very interested in trying this out, but again... I don't want to overfeed or cause them to get sick.

Thanks,
- Mandy

 

[Blucat]

ALso try zuchini.
my flame dwarf gourami looooove zuchini. I take one raw slice from the dinner vegies and i take the skin off and the seeds out. i place it in a bowl of boiled water until soft. Then i take off little pieces with my fingers and stick them in the water. gouramis love to take it from my fingers.

 

[severum mama]

Congrats on your new fish, sounds like you will have a lot of fun with them! When you feed veggies, just give them a few hours to eat what you put in and then remove whatever they don't eat. If you are worried about overfeeding, just feed them the veggies and then skip the flakes, it's not like they will starve or anything.

What else do you plan to keep with them? You have tons of options in a 46 gallon tank. Personally I would go with a school of some species of tetra, and then a school of cories and a pleco or something. And maybe add the dwarf blue gouramis like Blucat has, that would be so pretty. JMO

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Thanks!

Severum mama - As of right now, I'm planning on getting a small school (4-6) of Julli Cories. I think these Cory Cats are so adorable! I've been thinking about Panda Cories as well, but I'm leaning more towards the Jullis. I'll most likely be getting a pleco, probably a Bristlenose. I love Common Plecos, but they get to large for a tank of this size.

As far as adding more Gouramis goes, I'm still trying to figure out the best choices would be. I know that I will be sticking strictly with Dwarfs, but how many can fit comfortably in a 46 gallong tank? Should I get a pair of female Flame Dwarfs, maybe just one female? Should I get another male pair of the Neon Blues? I'm not sure what the best match would be. I've got a feeling that having a tank full of male Gouramis probably wouldn't be the best route.

I was thinking about adding some Tiger Barbs, but I learned that they're not very compatible with Gouramis as they like to nip at the fins. Needless to say, I've dropped them. I was also thinking about getting a single Red-Tailed Shark, but again I dropped those as they can get territorial aggressive.

- Mandy

 

[fearlessfisch]

Hi Mandy,
I usually put in one little broccoli floret (just like people, they like the top part better than the stalk) and a little marble-sized bunch of spinach. I think I remember that it took them a time or two before they discovered them, and then they went wild for them....so don't give up if they ignore it the first time. I rubber-band them to a rock that's tied to a thread, so I can pull it out when they are done.

It is usually gone within a day, but if it's not I take it out then. I have four gouramis and some other fish who like veggies, though, so you may have to remove some uneaten veggie. Since the cooked spinach and broccoli tend to fly off into the water a little (some people feed raw, but mine really like the soft texture), I usually feed them the day before I plan to do a gravel vac, just to make sure that i don't leave a lot of uneaten veggie to rot in the tank. I will clip zucchini or other less messy veggies during the week.

My fish get veggie day followed by fasting day. It cleans out their systems. Then they are back to flake food and frozen bloodworms on the next day.

 

[RoK]

As far as adding more Gouramis goes, I'm still trying to figure out the best choices would be. I know that I will be sticking strictly with Dwarfs, but how many can fit comfortably in a 46 gallong tank? Should I get a pair of female Flame Dwarfs, maybe just one female? Should I get another male pair of the Neon Blues? I'm not sure what the best match would be. I've got a feeling that having a tank full of male Gouramis probably wouldn't be the best route.

You could get some females but you should know that they aren't so colorful. They're mainly just a greyish color.
With gouramis if you're going to have multiple males it's best to have about twice as many females. Therefore, the aggression will be much more spread out. This is just from my experience and a little reading.
The thing is that female dwarf's are quite hard to find since they aren't a big seller.

 

[dr_girlfriend]

the females are still colorful. Not AS colorful as the males, but not ugly. And definitley keep more females than males. At least a 2-1 ratio. And I second the juli's. I think theyre the cutest

 

[Blucat]

when your tank is established you could add:

an angelfish pair: http://home.earthlink.net/~photofish/fish_photos/Angelpair2.jpg

a school of 4 Bosemani Rainbowfish: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=28378

 

[GouramiFanatic]

I'm not to worried about the female Dwarfs being 'less attractive' than the males. I'm more worried about the compatibility, territorial, and aggressiveness factors. I may check with some local fish stores to see if they have any females available or if they can at least get them.

My father used to have a 55 gallon tank when I was younger and he had some Anglefish, but I was never really fond of them. Of course, this was years and years ago so my tastes have probably changed. I'll check into both of your suggestions Blucat.

- Mandy