Gourami !

[Abhi]

Most of us in the beginning stages of our hobby have kept Goldfish and some time or the other Gourami. But now all I see our people running for exotics etc while we have some peaceful and graceful one here in the Gourami bracket.

Lets share our bit of knowledge in keeping these and pics if we have .

[Abhi]

To Start of,

Have kept the dwarf Gourami earlier. As of now keeping Ctenops nobilis, easy to keep if you have the space, eats mostly all foods, loves worms. Aggressive to conspecifics peaceful to others.

[Romi]

This is indeed a very unusual and attractive gourami species. I regret one time when Vijender offered me his and i could not say Yes. My tank was crowded already and I was afraid it was too delicate a species to survive with my fish then. The sharp snout, interesting swimming motion, and intriguing pattern and ocellus, in brown, on its leaf-like body makes it a very elegant even sophisticated creature! One can appreciate beauty like this only after several years of fishkeeping...

Thanks for sharing

[Abhi]

This is indeed a very unusual and attractive gourami species. I regret one time when Vijender offered me his and i could not say Yes. My tank was crowded already and I was afraid it was too delicate a species to survive with my fish then. The sharp snout, interesting swimming motion, and intriguing pattern and ocellus, in brown, on its leaf-like body makes it a very elegant even sophisticated creature! One can appreciate beauty like this only after several years of fishkeeping...

Thanks for sharing

Romi, what about your experiences? With any Gourami.

[SCORPIO]

I have kept blue, dwarf, neon and kissing gouramis with early days of hobby. They are capable in tolerating different water parameters.

[bobvin]

I have a perl gourami pair from last 2 years. they beautiful and hard fish,

[jack]

As a newbie have never kept gourami but when i was in mumbai for training had a small tank in my hostel and there i had a pair of blue gourami.... Very pretty fish and easy to take care of i hardly have changed the water.... Just routine feeding, airation and my signature over filteration :p but have to give that to the opposite complex sandwitchwala where i had good repo with him.... He had 3 huge planted tanks in his sandwitch shop :0 and those were the first planted tanks i ever saw in my life....

[syed.ali]

I think kissing gourami is a must for starter, a very low depending sturdy fish. like rajeev said tolerant to change in water parameters. I have loved keeping dwarf and blue gouramis.

[Romi]

This is indeed a very unusual and attractive gourami species. I regret one time when Vijender offered me his and i could not say Yes. My tank was crowded already and I was afraid it was too delicate a species to survive with my fish then. The sharp snout, interesting swimming motion, and intriguing pattern and ocellus, in brown, on its leaf-like body makes it a very elegant even sophisticated creature! One can appreciate beauty like this only after several years of fishkeeping...

Thanks for sharing

Romi, what about your experiences? With any Gourami.

From the time i was in KG and my dad had a family aquarium in the drawing room, i have always enjoyed Gouramis. They are the best combination of colour and hardiness and the Three-spot Gourami--usually kept as the blue morph, called Blue Gourami--must be the hardiest medium size aquarium fish ever.

Over the years, i have enjoyed many Dwarf Gouramis, Kissing Gouramis, Pearl Gouramis, a trio of Thick Lipped Gourami (very similar to dwarf gourami but larger) and the neon gourami form of dwarf gourami. These fish do excellent with the mix of dry and live food i offer, as well as the plant cover i like. Their labyrinth organ makes them very tough, and they have fascinating breeding behaviour (dwarf gouramis can even spit water like Archer fish when they are healthy and strong). We must not forget even Bettas are gouramis, even if they look different

Gouramis are also among the fish that i most aspire to keep, some of them are so beautiful, they do not look real. An example of such gouramis would be Parosphromenus harveyi and P alfredi. I would have attached a few pics of the species i am referring to, but my net is too slow, so i am pasting urls direct .... What do you guys think?

http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=h ... AQ&dur=298

http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=h ... BA&dur=261

[Romi]

I think kissing gourami is a must for starter, a very low depending sturdy fish. like rajeev said tolerant to change in water parameters. I have loved keeping dwarf and blue gouramis.

I agree, Kissing Gouramis are sturdy, Syed. But the quality of the fish has crashed, they have such bumpy foreheads these days.. Otherwise, they have an amazing body symmetry, the top and bottom profile are nearly identical, which is rare in Gouramis.

Sometimes, they develop the habit of uprooting plants. Interestingly, Kissing Gouramis are capable of eating plankton even as adults. so do not hesitate to feed them your leftover Hikari FirstBites. They will make a funnel of their lips and just slurp the tiny particles...