Spotted gourami: description, maintenance and reproduction

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The birthplace of spotted gourami is Indochina. In their natural environment, fish live in stagnant and slowly flowing water bodies. Locals are happy to eat gourami, in nature, such fish reach sizes up to 15 cm in length.

In appearance, these are quite beautiful aquatic inhabitants, they are very popular among aquarium lovers, they can not only decorate the fish house, but also benefit by eating all the hydras in it. Have you decided to have such a fish as a spotted gourami? Content, its compatibility with other aquarium inhabitants, diet and reproduction - you can learn about all this from the article.

Description

They named these fish because of the special structure of the lips. They are highly developed in gourami and adapted to clean the glass of the aquarium from food residues and growths of greenery. The movements of the lips are very reminiscent of a kiss, especially in those moments when the fish quarrel among themselves and push with their mouths wide open.

Spotted gourami in aquarium conditions grows up to 12 cm. The body of the fish is high and compressed on the sides. The fins are like thin, threadlike mustaches thattheir length corresponds to the total length of the body. These antennae in fish help to touch the environment, they are constantly moving. If a spotted gourami sees an unfamiliar object, a fish or a snail, then he immediately begins to feel from all sides until he gets acquainted. During spawning, females and males touch each other with their whiskers, as if caressing and hugging. If it so happens that the antennae breaks off, then soon after the injury it grows back. The anal fin starts near the anus and ends at the beginning of the caudal fin.

The color of the spotted gourami is silver-purple. Across the body are purple stripes with a dark tint. There is a dark spot near the tail and in the middle of the body. The fins are transparent with white or pale orange spots. Males differ from females in a more saturated color, in females, the anal and dorsal fins are sharper and longer than in males.

Spotted Gourami content

There is no difficulty in keeping spotted gourami, as they are not picky, but you still need to know some features if you decide to have these beautiful fish. The most important thing is to choose a suitable aquarium, which should be at least 40 liters in volume.

The next step is to prepare the fish house. Before filling it with water, it must be defended for two days. What kind of water will spotted gourami feel comfortable in?

• Temperature - 22-28 degrees.

• Hardness (dH) - 5-35.• Acidity (pH) - 6, 0 -8, 5.

Place on the bottom of the aquariumdark pebbles or gravel, put a few different driftwood and large rounded stones. Part of the water house should be densely planted with Java moss, Thai fern, vallisneria, or cryptocorynes. Place duckweed, salvinia, riccia or pistia on the surface of the water.

An aquarium with spotted inhabitants is recommended to be placed in a place where it will be illuminated by the sun for several hours a day. Fish of this species are very mobile, they can easily jump out of the water and die. To prevent this from happening, their glass house must be covered with a special lid. It must be cleaned every seven days. Aeration and filtration of water for gourami are optional.

Food Diet

Spotted gourami is not picky in food, he is happy to eat both plant foods and animal foods.

Plant food:

• Crumbs of white bread.
• Lettuce.
• Oatmeal, finely ground.
• Filamentous algae.

Live food:

• Pipemaker.
• Motyl.
• Daphnia.
• Artemia.
• Flies.

In the gourami diet, you can also include dry food - cyclops, daphnia, gammarus.

Reproduction

Spotted gourami spawns in a forty-liter aquarium with a water level of no more than 20 cm at a temperature of at least 27-28 degrees, the water composition is normal.

A week before the start of spawning, parent fish should be fed only with live food. Male without participationfemales build a nest, spending about two days on this activity. The expectant mother comes to the finished apartment and starts spawning, the future dad immediately fertilizes her.

After spawning, the female must be immediately removed, the male gourami takes excellent care of the nest and eggs. At this time, he is very attentive and caring, regularly corrects the nest, if necessary, transfers the eggs to the best place in the house, creates a current of water with the movements of the fins.

As a result of such efforts, in a day in the nest you can see small larvae that keep upright. A caring father will take care of the children until they turn into fry and swim out of the nest. At this time, a good parent turns into a terrible cannibal and can easily eat all the offspring that he so carefully looked after. Therefore, it is very important not to miss the moment of transformation and to plant the male in time. The remaining small fish need to be fed with ciliates for 3-4 days, then you can switch to small zooplankton.

Compatibility in the aquarium with other fish

Spotted gourami is a very peaceful fish. Such beauties feel comfortable with other calm inhabitants of the aquarium. You only need to select for the neighborhood those species that need the same water parameters and conditions.

Ideal neighbors for gourami:

• Swordsmen.
• Barbs.
• Debriefing.
• Catfish.
• Lalius.
• Danio.
• Pecilia.