Chocolate Gourami

[amkbettafan]

Recently free up a 45cm tank and converted into a blackwater tank.

Bought this choco gourami from Seaview on Saturday. It's day 3 and found 3 of them have settle down, out of the 5 in the bag.

Interesting behavior while feeding them with bbs this morning.

YouTube Video

[patclay]

They behave like fighting fish.

[amkbettafan]

Originally Posted by patclay

They behave like fighting fish.

Indeed.

Lots of flaring among the similar size ones. One smaller one is being pick on by one specific fish.

Good thing being mouthbrooders, the water need not be too stagnant, because the OHF can cause some water movement.

Only concern now I have is one fish is forever hiding and not eating. I think its too soon to expect it to carry any eggs, anyway, only my 2nd attempt to see if I can breed these.

[dhmy3kgto]

This is a challenging fish. But it is a very beautiful fish to keep. Hope you have luck breeding them, from what I understand it is quite a rare feat.

[amkbettafan]

Originally Posted by dhmy3kgto

This is a challenging fish. But it is a very beautiful fish to keep. Hope you have luck breeding them, from what I understand it is quite a rare feat.

Yeah. Read its challenging due to the water requirement. Currently I am running 2 filter in there, a large size Gex OHF and a box filter.

And added ketapang leaves and tree root for the blackwater effect.

Most challenging to me is to train them to take pellets. Hatching bbs when my adult brine shrimp number is depleted is quite siong.

Am feeding them frozen bloodworm too, to give some variety.

[honghonghonghon]

Chocolate gourami likes heavily planted tank and lower ph. Peat can be used to lower the ph more effectively, but for small tank got to monitor.

[dhmy3kgto]

Originally Posted by amkbettafan

Yeah. Read its challenging due to the water requirement. Currently I am running 2 filter in there, a large size Gex OHF and a box filter.

And added ketapang leaves and tree root for the blackwater effect.

Most challenging to me is to train them to take pellets. Hatching bbs when my adult brine shrimp number is depleted is quite siong.

Am feeding them frozen bloodworm too, to give some variety.

If you gotten the gourami from LFS then they should more or less be pallet trained, just look out for diseases. Seems like they get white spots easily whenever I see them in certain LFSs...

[amkbettafan]

Originally Posted by honghonghonghon

Chocolate gourami likes heavily planted tank and lower ph. Peat can be used to lower the ph more effectively, but for small tank got to monitor.

I only provide some floaters in this setup. I avoid live plants in the tank in order to keep maintenance easier.

And the lights are kept dim, so, it will be only slow growth plant can adapt to the setup.

And thanks for the input.

[amkbettafan]

Originally Posted by dhmy3kgto

If you gotten the gourami from LFS then they should more or less be pallet trained, just look out for diseases. Seems like they get white spots easily whenever I see them in certain LFSs...

So far no white spot seen on all the fishes. The pecking orders have been established so far but I still cant tell who is papa and mama

Will give it a shot on the pellets on Sunday after I starve them for on Fri and Sat.

[dhmy3kgto]

Originally Posted by amkbettafan

So far no white spot seen on all the fishes. The pecking orders have been established so far but I still cant tell who is papa and mama

Will give it a shot on the pellets on Sunday after I starve them for on Fri and Sat.

Sounds like a plan! Good Luck!