i recently acquired a pair of chocolate gouramis to put in my 75 litre juwel tank. i have heard these are very sensitive and hard to look after. ive had them a week and i have by no means provided with what i have read are ideal conditions for them ( ie soft acidic water and shy slow tank mates) however they seem just like every other tank mate and very active and happy. i feed my fish mainly frozen and live food any way so the fact that they dont eat flakes doesnt matter. their other tank mates are, bala shrak, rainbow shark, angels, neons and a sucking loach most of which are pretty fast. I really really love the gouramis and would like them to stay alive cos im worried that i'll wake up to them both being dead in the morning. has anyone got any experiences with these fish that they can share with me or gve any advice etc?
chocolate gouramis
- Thread starter maz
- Start date
Chocos tend to be very sensitive fish to aggression and shipping, you may have gotten lucky on the latter but I would not be suprised if they become overly stressed from their other tank mates.
I would strongly reccomend setting up their own species tank ASAP, i believe and article a while back in TFH talked about keeping Chocos and said it is very unlikely for them to survive with tankmates more active than an Oto. Also water conditions tend to be important for long term health, mind you this isnt First hand experiance just what ive gathered from magazines and some friends.
cheers
I would strongly reccomend setting up their own species tank ASAP, i believe and article a while back in TFH talked about keeping Chocos and said it is very unlikely for them to survive with tankmates more active than an Oto. Also water conditions tend to be important for long term health, mind you this isnt First hand experiance just what ive gathered from magazines and some friends.
cheers
hi, thanks for your reply. looking in books and on the net i have roughly found the same kind of advice that you gave me. however i did read somewhere years ago about someone who had kept the choc gouramis with other tankmates for a good while without messing with the ph and water hardness so was wondering if anyone else has had the same experience. i do a 10-20% water change every week and nitrate and nitrite levels are always at 0ppm everytime i test it. the reason i want to keep the chocs in the same tank is cos realistically i have no space for another tank. i know that my tank at the mo is not big enough for the fish i have when they fully mature, but i will be getting a 55 gal tank once i move out of current place in bout 18 months.
18months....thats really far off...since the fish get about an avg of 2.5in...my best suggestion to you would be to get a cheap 10gal tank (which will cost you like 8bucks) its small enough to fit in your place but descent for them to temporarily live in , i would remove them from the community tank bc they will not survive for much longer, a possible tankmate could be a rasbora species....if they are doing well in the water parameters they have i wouldnt mess with it but i would still move them
well the thing is, even though they are in a community tank, the other fish dont bother them and i have planted one part of my tank quite heavily so they hang out there when they want cos its slightly darker and away from all other fish and when i feed them they compete for the food like every other fish and have been doing so for bout the past 10 days (since i bought them). When i say i have no space i mean im struggling to walk in my room as im living in dorms bt will graduate in 18 months so have to wait till then cos i cnt even fit a 10 gal. Also these fish like mature waters so cnt exactly put them in there in a week or two and have to cycle the new tank which will take god knows how long. have u had chocs before?
update on the chocs
well its been over two weeks now and both my chocs are live and kicking in a community tank of bout 17-20 gals with much larger fish. today i even saw them chasing my bala shark which was pretty damn odd seeing that hes bout 100 times faster than them. these chocs must be some super strong mutant chocs, lol...yeeeh right...i shall probably find out the hard way how they are not!
well its been over two weeks now and both my chocs are live and kicking in a community tank of bout 17-20 gals with much larger fish. today i even saw them chasing my bala shark which was pretty damn odd seeing that hes bout 100 times faster than them. these chocs must be some super strong mutant chocs, lol...yeeeh right...i shall probably find out the hard way how they are not!
