I just bought 5 chocolate gouramis for my 2 feet planted tank about 5 days ago. There is currently no other fishes.
Can anyone tell me if it is normal that at times they stay near the top of the water? I notice that they like to do this all the time, and I am not sure whether it is normal. Then it seem like they will take a "drink" and expel some bubbles.
Also, are they picky eater? I gave them some dried dapnias and for the past 5 days they ignore and refuse to eat. Not sure whether there's something wrong witht them or not.
Any insight will be really appreciated.
They are similar to bettas... they take in atomspheric oxygen.
I believe they prefer live food much more than processed/dried food. Try feeding with live food and slowly converting them to processed food. If yours manage to survive, congratulations! Chocolate gouramis didn't do well with me
ive had them i hope your tank is well planted as i'd hate the same thing that happened to me to happen to you, the dominant fish hunted out the others and started attacking them and mine were in a tank twice the size of yours.
as squee has said they pefer to eat live food but i suppose frozen will be just as good.
mick
I use both frozen and live daphnias, works equally well.
They are very delicate fish and I have a few pieces. I feel them with dry food. Slowly introduce dry food to them and when hunger strike they will take.
I have one of them for at least 2 years now and they still stay on top column of the tank so that's normal.
Note that a drastic change of parameter of the water will make their fins clamped and for my case, usually they don't survive the ordeal.
hmmm, don't really want to feed them with bloodworms or frozen daphnias (make mess of tank afterwards), but they don't seem to take any interest in dried food at all. it's now almost 1 week they don't eat, but they are swimming around the tank. funnily enough, these gouramis are still alive, but i tried introducing otos 2 times, and both times they die immediately or in a 2 days.
That sounds bad, what is your tank specs? Otos may be fragile, but they are not that drastic. You also don't have to feed the entire cube of frozen worm or daphnia, you can break it in half to feed. I also recommend getting live feed as much as possible, you can dump a scoop of daphnias in and let them swim around, the gouramis will pick them out when they are hungry and the plus point is that they don't mess you tank.
You can defrost the bloodworms in a cup and then use pincers to target feed your fishes... It is quite an interesting experience when your fishes feed out from your "hands"...
Also, you don't create a mess as you wouldn't continue to feed if you noticed that they are not eating...
The juggling apprentice fish
Some fish just will not learn to take dried or processed food. They will rather starve to death. If we are unable or unwilling to feed live or frozen food to them, then they will starve to death. It would then be better to leave them at the LFS and not buy them.
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hi all thanks for your feedback. as from last week, i have successfully converted my choco gouramis to eat dry food. i tried frozen bloodworms, but gosh have to hand-feed (or pincer-feed in this case
i use ADA AP-Gold dry food and they take up to this food faster than the other dry food brands i have tried.
They are curious fish............always going around looking for trouble. The word "danger" is not in their mind.
I used to keep 2 until my apisto killed them during breeding. Must have venture too near to nest.
try keeping them in a stable(mature) planted tank. they are able to live well.
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