Jumping Gouramis and Bubbles!!

[GouramiFanatic]

My two Flame Dwarf Gouramis were in a VERY spunky mood this morning! When I went to feed them they both started blowing bubbles at the surface of the water as soon as I put my hand over the aquarium. The bubbles actually reached about two inches off of the surface! One of them even started jumping completely out of the water! I'm really big into whale watching so I had a blast watching my Gouramis 'breaching'. LOL

I'd seen them blowing bubbles before, but this was the first time they ever jumped out of the water. Has anyone else experienced this with their Dwarf Gouramis? I didn't think that they were jumpers.

- Mandy

 

[Puriti]

I've only seen them jump when i was getting gouramis at petsmart and they kept jumping out and another lady had to come and put her hand over it lol.

i've never see mine do that though, but zipper's a frady cat and tang just likes to look at ya lol

 

[Zezmo]

That all sounds normal. I feed my fish using a feeding ring. On occasion my oldest male DG (Colisa lalia) will jump out of the water and do a sideways "belly flop" through the ring to knock the food down in the water. More commonly, both my male and female DG will come to the surface and spit water trying to knock the food from my fingers as I go to put it in the tank. I have seen them spit this water about 2 inches above the surface of the tank. When I feed them Daphnia, some of the daphnia get stuck on the glass on the side of the tank. After the feeding frenzy is over, the Gouramis go around spitting water up the side of the tank to knock the food to where they can get this. I have a nice book on Gouramis (actually a book on labyrinth fishes) that indicates that this is all normal behavior.
The blowing of bubbles is also normal, the DGs build awesome bubble nests. I have seen them weave plants together with their bubbles to make some great nests.