Having mastered life in captivity relatively recently, aquarium fish gourami became the favorite pittomes for lazy aquarists. They are unpretentious in the care of the crane, they breathe atmospheric air and belong to the labyrinthine fishes . At the same time grow up to 10-15 cm, can have different, but always very colorful and attractive color and never give bored to the rest of the inhabitants of the aquarium.
How do fish look like gourami?
The first thing that attracts attention in the external appearance of these fish is their filiform abdominal fins. Their main purpose is to feel everything that is around. In fact, they are their main tactile organ. Nature has created such fins to facilitate the life of gurus in natural habitats, where the water in the reservoirs is very turbid. Although the water in the aquarium is more transparent, the habit of touching the fins with fish fins was preserved by aquarium fish.
By the way, about natural habitats of gourami, the motherland of this fish is the great islands of Indonesia, the Malacca Peninsula and South Vietnam. Adaptation to local water bodies, poor oxygen, and gave them the opportunity to survive in aquariums without additional oxygen injection. Their respiratory organ is the so-called labyrinth, it allows breathing atmospheric air.
The body of gourami has a flattened and elongated shape. Their lower fin gradually widens and extends from the thoracic to the tail. The upper fin of the male and female is somewhat different: in the first case it has an elongated and pointed form, in females it is short and rounded. The color of the body varies depending on the habitat and the variety. Aquarium cute fish gourami often have a characteristic marble pattern of stripes and spots, sometimes there is a brindle color of brown strips.
Fishes with gourami - care and maintenance
For comfortable living and longevity, aquarium fish gurus require maintenance and care, although not complex, but still with some features:
- The size of the aquarium should not be less than 50 cm in length, its capacity should be more than 50 liters. Fish are very mobile, they need a place for free movement.
- The soil in the aquarium should be dark, locally planted with small leaves. Floating plants are also mandatory during the spawning period - they serve as a breeding ground for nests.
- Snags need to be present, but there must be a lot of free space.
- The water temperature, optimal for gourami - from +23 to +26 ° C.
- It is important to keep the aquarium clean. In a poorly maintained and dirty aquarium, fish fall ill and die.
Fishes Gourami - care
Aquarium fish gurus do not require an aeration and filtration system, and yet it is desirable to equip the aquarium with the appropriate technique. In any case, a regular partial water change is necessary - once a week you need to replace 1/3 of the aquarium's volume with clean water. Lighting for the aquarium should be good, preferably the top. In the morning hours, just enough sunlight.
The description of a giraffe fish is impossible without mentioning its playfulness and mobility. Therefore, with all the density of vegetation, there should be plenty of free space in the aquarium. From above, it must necessarily be covered with a lid because of excellent jumping by gourami. Bark on the bottom are necessary to improve the health of fish, because they release humic substances. In addition, they make the water similar to that found in natural water bodies.
What to feed the fish with gourami?
Gurami - an excellent aquarium fish, the content of which does not require much effort, including in the feeding. It can eat any kind of food - ice cream, live, dry. An additional source of nutrition for it is vegetation in the aquarium. With its help gurus can survive your absence for 1-2 weeks. The only thing to remember is that the fish have a small mouth, so the food should not be large, so that they do not choke when swallowed.
Despite the unpretentiousness, aquarium fish gurus still develop better with a variety of nutrition. Only dry food is not the best way to feed them. Periodically, the diet should be varied with live moth, cottage cheese and scraped meat. In doing so, you should try not to overfeed the fish. For them, fasting is more preferable than excessive feeding.
Aquarium fish gourami - reproduction
They can reproduce themselves by gouramis, beginning with one-year-old age. For their breeding, you need to get a separate aquarium for 20-30 liters. The water in it is heated to + 26-28 ° C and makes it softer than in the main aquarium. Two weeks before the proposed spawning, the chosen couple is transplanted into it. During these 2 weeks they are fed with live food - bloodworm and coretra. To stimulate reproduction in the aquarium regularly add fresh water.
Fishes with gourami and their reproduction are special in that everything begins with the construction of a nest in floating plants, and it makes it male. He with his saliva holds together air bubbles, which takes about a day. The finished nest is about 5 centimeters in size. The female only observes the process. When the nest and the female are ready to spawn, it swims to it and is located from the bottom. The male squeezes out the eggs from the female, impregnates them, then collects them with the mouth and places them inside the nest. The eggs can be several thousand, but not all of them will be fish - most of them invariably die.
Further care for eggs is also performed by the male. He returns to the place dropped eggs from the nest. When a couple of days from the eggs hatch fry, the male from the aquarium is removed, because it can damage them when trying to return to the nest. Feed the fry with infusoria and Kolovratka, or live dust from temporary reservoirs. First time they need aeration, because the labyrinthine organ they develop not immediately. Fry grows quickly, albeit unevenly. Therefore, you need to sort them by size and plant them so that smaller fry will have a chance to survive.
Compatibility gourami with other fish
The best gurus get along with small calm fish, living in the lower layer of the aquarium. While with large predators, active and playful, gurus do not need to settle, as they can lose their long fins and generally will not know peace. Here is an approximate list, with what fish get along with gourami:
It is undesirable to combine gourami with such fish:
- guppies ;
- acne;
- discus ;
- shrimp.
And completely incompatible aquarium long-finfish gourami with:
- cockerels;
- cichlids ;
- goldfish;
- koi koi;
- astronotuses ;
- piranhas.
Diseases of fish by gourami
Gurami - problem-free fish, their content under optimal conditions excludes disease. And yet sometimes there are some health problems:
- With poor aeration of the aquarium and its contamination in fish, the symptoms of dropsy appear.
- When lesions with parasites in gurami, there are diseases of hexamytosis, ichthyosporidiosis and chylodonellosis. Symptoms are anxiety, rubbing against objects, circling around yourself, losing weight. Their body becomes roughened and shiny at the same time, the color becomes darker, the eyes are affected. They need immediate treatment, otherwise there will be a mass death.
- Due to mechanical damage or crustacean parasites, lymphocystis can occur. From him gurus cure themselves, along the way acquiring immunity.
- A common disease for gourami is fin rot . Its danger is that due to the decomposition of the fins there is a lack of coordination. Treatment is required gradual and competent.
- Sometimes gourami, along with the diet of daphnia, swallow parasites and become ill with ligulosis. They grow their abdomen, lose appetite, after which they die. To prevent infection of all the inhabitants of the aquarium, urgent treatment is required.
Types of fish gourami
Fish gourami and its species, known widely, are estimated to be 1.5-2 dozen. In fact, there are even more of them. Basically, the name of a particular species corresponds to the peculiarities of their color, less often to features of behavior, as in the case of kissing gurus. Each species is beautiful in its own way, any of them will perfectly decorate your aquarium. Here are descriptions of several of the most famous and common varieties of gourami.
Fish pearl gourami
Aquarium fish called pearl gurus came to us from India and Indochina. They have a silvery body, covered with small specks with a pearl ebony, at the expense of which they iron out as if covered with pearls. They also have a characteristic strip going from head to tail. These fishes love warm water (from +27 to +29 ° C). In maintenance and care are unpretentious, like other types of gurus.
Aquarium fish marble gourami
Marble gourami fish are the most common of all subspecies. They dwell in the waters of Indochina. Their name they received due to the color, reminiscent of the texture of marble. On their silvery body, dark spots are clearly discernible, as well as in natural stone. The love for this breed of fish is due to the simplicity of their breeding and content. They are peaceful and calm, perfectly get along with many aquarium fish.
Fish grumbling with gourami
The peculiarity of this variety of fish with gourami is their ability to make nagging sounds resembling the croaking of frogs. The natural habitat for them - Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Sunda Islands. The body of these fish is flat, oblate on the sides. Caudal fin wide and roundish, with a point in the middle. Ventrals long, filiform. The color varies from brown and golden to green and blue. Two parallel strips run along the trunk.
Honey gum
This fish got its name for its color - from orange-red to yellow-brown. On the abdomen they have a dark brown streak. Like other species, the honeyfish with gurus is peace-loving, and even a little shy. In general, unpretentious and easy to maintain, therefore ideal for beginners aquarists. The only feature is that she likes a lowered level of water in the aquarium.
Red gourami fish
Red refers to the honey variety of fish gourami. Small in size, brightly colored, it is great for an average aquarium with quiet inhabitants. She has an oval, strongly compressed on each side body, mouth with thick lips. Undemanding and peace-loving, she prefers to feed on a plant basis, but also zealously throws herself at the cyclops, daphnia and tubulars.