Golden gourami: content, description, photo

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

Thanks to the painstaking work of talented breeders, lovers of aquarium animals have received such an amazing fish as golden gourami - the result of numerous crossings of marble breeds. This representative of the suborder of labyrinth individuals is also called sunny, woody, lemon.

Description

The average size of an adult gourami is 8-10 cm. The body of the fish can be pale yellow, without visible spots, or decorated with bright black transverse stripes. In most cases, there are light blotches on the abdomen, and the dark stripes on the back become brighter. A feature of the structure of the golden gourami is the fins in the form of a threadlike mustache on the abdomen, they are a kind of organ of touch.

The dorsal fin has a short shape, and the anal fin, in turn, is quite long, with a dark stripe that loses its brightness with age. As a rule, the colors of males are brighter than those of females, the fin on their back has a sharp shape and is noticeably extended towards the tail. The eyes of the gourami are reddish in color, the mouth is small and stretched upwards. To an unusual featureThis fish can be attributed to the fact that they eat hydra, which allows us to call this suborder of labyrinths a kind of aquarium orderlies. Also, gourami are happy to eat small mollusks, such as snails, coils, etc. On average, fish live up to 7 years.

Behavior

Golden gourami differs from other varieties of aquarium fish in its calm and peaceful behavior, although it has been observed that during the spawning period, males can be aggressive and conflict with each other. Gourami live, as a rule, in the middle layers of water, but they are quite shy, so they can hide in dense algae. It is necessary to plant an aquarium with a large number of plants and be sure to use driftwood and houses. In such conditions, it will be very good and comfortable to feel golden gourami.

Compatibility

This type of fish gets along wonderfully with other aquarium representatives. Only occasionally do males exhibit aggressive behavior towards other males. Usually, both small and large neighbors can be safely planted to the golden gourami. This role is great for angelfish, neon, lalius, etc.

Containment conditions

Among most aquarium fish, golden gourami is distinguished by unpretentiousness and endurance. Their content requires only observance of the most common conditions. Basically it is clean water, bright lighting and the presence of a large free space. The size of the aquarium must be at least 100 liters per2-3 fish, as gouramis need a lot of space to swim. The water should not be hard, temperature fluctuations are allowed in the range from 23 to 27 ⁰С, replacement must be done weekly up to 20-30% of the volume of the aquarium.

Given that this type of fish belongs to the representatives of labyrinths, gourami must be provided with the necessary amount of air, therefore it is unacceptable to close the aquarium tightly, but it is also not worth leaving it completely open, as the fish often swims to the surface of the water. In order for the golden gourami not to catch a cold, it is necessary to create a constant circulation of warm air in the upper part of the aquarium. It is also worth remembering that absolutely clean water is needed to breed and maintain a solar miracle, so filtration and aeration will not be superfluous.

What to feed

Gourami is an omnivorous fish. Food can be used both live (cyclops, tubifex, bloodworm, etc.) and dry substitutes. When choosing food, you need to remember that the mouth of the fish is small. The golden gourami, whose photo is posted in this article, is prone to overeating. It is worth remembering this and strictly monitoring the quantitative part of the portion so as not to harm the excess of food.

Reproduction

The same measures are taken for breeding golden gourami as in most cases with the breeding of spawning fish. The spawning ground must be at least 50 liters in volume. During the spawning season, the female needs shelter. To do this, part of the aquarium is abundantly planted with algae. Before the start of the breeding process, the female and male are seated indifferent containers for 2 weeks and are abundantly fed with live food, mainly bloodworms, until the female's abdomen is significantly enlarged. After that, the fish can be transferred to the spawning ground. On the surface of the water, the male builds a foamy nest 7–8 cm in diameter from air bubbles, using small particles of plants and algae, while not eating anything. On average, a female lays up to 2,000 eggs.

The spawning period lasts 3-4 hours. After its completion, the female is planted, and the male collects the eggs with his mouth into the nest and begins to guard the brood, thereby taking care of the offspring. But you should not forget that the golden gourami fish can independently prepare for breeding in an ordinary aquarium. This can be facilitated by abundant food and too warm water. Most often, there is little benefit from such spawning, since in the general aquarium, fry can be eaten by other fish. Therefore, in order to avoid such situations, you need not to overfeed the fish and keep the water temperature no higher than 23–24 oC.

The rate of development of eggs after spawning depends on the temperature of the water - it should be warm and comfortable for the fish. Usually, larvae appear within a day, the male takes care of them until they turn into fry and can swim on their own. As soon as this happens, the male must be immediately transferred to a separate container, because the parent may accidentally eat the fry.

After 2-3 weeks individuals can breed again. It is necessary to feed the fry with ciliates or nematodes, finely grated egg yolk is allowed. They grow pretty fast. On average, this period takes 2-4 days. At this time, it is necessary to lower the water level in the aquarium to 10 cm, this will allow young individuals to capture air near the surface, since the labyrinth organ will be fully developed only by 10–14 weeks of life. After about 1 year, the fish reach sexual maturity.

If the golden gourami lives in an aquarium where suitable conditions are created for it, then, as a rule, it has he alth problems. An outbreak of disease can be triggered by malnutrition or contact with sick fish.