Red honey Gourami, Trichogaster chuna, gen. care   - 11/20/07
Hello Crew,
<Hello Mark.>
Currently I have 20 gallon moderately planted tank with following fish:
2 golden rams
6 harlequin Rasboras
4 Oto cats
I'd like to add 2 Gouramis, preferably honey.
I've never kept Gourami before and I'd like to ask few questions:
Do I have space to add any fish?
<In terms of water quality, yes. But the Rams may take exception to competition for space at the bottom, and will beat the life out of small Gouramis.>
Are Gouramis and rams compatible?
<In my opinion, no. I don't personally consider labyrinth fish (climbing perch, Gouramis and Bettas) to be compatible with cichlids. They demand similar resources, but cichlids tend to be more aggressive. There are exceptions to this, but as a rule, I personally recommend keeping one or the other except in really big tanks.>
Will Gouramis destroy my plants?
<No.>
What is red honey Gourami?
<It's a tank-bred variant of Trichogaster chuna, or maybe a hybrid between Colisa lalia and Trichogaster chuna, or even a plain vanilla Trichogaster chuna that's been "juiced" up with colour-enhancing foods. Opinions vary. In any event, they're cranked out of Southeast Asia and have a less than stellar reputation of hardiness and longevity.>
Are they hardy fish?
<No. Even plain vanilla Trichogaster chuna are delicate fish in anything other than soft, acid water. Fancy varieties would be a notch or two down from even that.>
What kind of fish would you recommend for my tank if Gourami is a bad choice?
<I'd perhaps look for things to live at the *top* of the tank, where the Rams won't be going. Small livebearers, such as Endler guppies, aren't an option because you need soft, acid water for Rams. The high temperatures Rams need (26-30 C) cross Danios off the list, too. But certain killifish such as Aplocheilichthys normani might be an option, as would Nomorhamphus spp. halfbeaks. Hatchetfish can work very nicely in well-maintained tanks, though they are somewhat delicate at first and tend to be nervous unless kept in reasonable numbers (six at least).>
Thank you for your help,
Mark
<Cheers, Neale.>

Balloon kissing gourami   1/21/06
Hey guys, I read your website all the time and now I have a question of my own.  I have heard of a dwarf species of kissing gouramis called "balloon kissing gouramis," but I cannot find that much information on them.  I was wondering if you know exactly how big these fish get compared to the regular kissers.
<Smaller, slower growing>
I have a long (36") 25g tank that I am ready to stock w/ freshwater fish. I was going to get a couple of pink kissers and keep them there until they outgrew the tank and I could move them to a larger size one.  But now I am thinking that this dwarf balloon species might be a better and more permanent choice for my tank.  
<Agreed>
I would like to keep them in the 25g with a small school of Corys (and maybe a pair of another type of gourami?).
<Should work>
  I would appreciate any info you have on the balloon kissers and any other suggestions for my tank. Thanks!
-Jon
<Please read here re: http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/anabantoids/balkissinggour.php
Bob Fenner>

Gourami Hybrid???  11/9/05
Hi, I have a question about a fish I recently purchased. Now, I don't have a camera, but I'll try to describe "her" (assuming it is a her) the best I can. Wal-Mart had her labeled as a blue gourami (the kind w/2 spots), but the only part of her that is blue are some spots on her anal fin. Her body shape is that of a blue gourami, however. She's a pale silver color, with cichlid-like stripes that start out black at the tail, and fade to silver near her neck. She's a very peaceful fish, but I'd really like to know why she looks so different. Hope you can help - Thanks. ~Ash
<Mmm, good description... Let's see, the species of blue Gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus... does come in a few "sports" (purposeful/made genetic varieties... like domestic dogs let's say)... the three spot, gold, silver, with varying lengths of fins... are all the same species. Is indeed possible that you have a cross twixt some of these. Bob Fenner> 

Gourami Sexing? 10/25/05 Hi WWM Crew, <Jim> I have read a lot on the Gourami fish. I have found sites that say the female 3-spot or blue Gourami has a small rounded dorsal fin. <Mmm, well, "usually", or generally more so than most males of the species, sub-species> I believe a picture is worth a thousand words. <I'm using that catch-phrase from now on ;>)> I currently have 2 blue Gouramis, I believe them to be males. <Mmm, one... the "3-Spot" looks like a female to me> 1 does have a smaller dorsal fin with lighter coloring and no swelling, but they act like kissing Gourami constantly kissing. I am going to provide pictures of both fish, hopefully you can tell me what is going on in my 40gl tank. I have had the Gourami for about 4 months and the coloring has become very vivid. They are beautiful fish. I originally thought with the coloring that I had a male and female, but now I am starting to question what I originally thought. (It is very hard to take a picture of a fish, made mistake with having flash on. I figured out that was a no-no, <A comment re: You can use flash/strobe/s... at an angle, overhead, with polarized filter on your lens...> I hope you will be able to tell with the pictures I have taken.) I asked at 1 LFS, but was told that the fish needed to a lot older then the ones I had. (guessing person really did not know.) I have looked at other LFS but can not tell any difference in most the Gourami that they stock. Please help me in sexing these two. If I do happen to have 2 male, I am going to try and find a couple females for the guys then. 40gl 2 blue Gourami 3 white clouds 3 long finned blue danios 2 neon tetra 1 black neon tetra 1 Cory cat 2 s.a.g. nitrate 20ppm (20% water change is today/not done yet) nitrite 0ppm gH 150ppm kH 80ppm ph 7.0 Thank you Jim <The behavior you mention could go one twixt fish of the same sex, but I do suspect the less-colorful, rounder, shorter dorsal finned individual with the more prominent body spots is a female, the other a male. Cheers, Bob Fenner>

Re: Gourami Sexing? 10/25/05 Thank you so much for helping out with sexing on my 2 blue Gourami. <Bob says you're welcome>  I was not sure when they started the kissing behavior. They started showing more vivid color a couple days before starting that behavior. <that's good!> I noticed a website that put a cut Styrofoam cup floating for the male to use to make his air bubble nest.  <have done this in the past...works like a charm> I copied their design with the cup, currently he has a huge nest with a lot of bubbles. Hopefully, I can get everything right for them to breed. <yes, do make sure you feed them good foods with Selcon...blood worms, good flake foods, etc> The WWM Crew is the Best. <thanks> Again Thank you  <IanB>

Long worm, tree-climbing fish
I have two questions. The first one is What kind of worm can stretch up to 90 feet and where can I find a picture of one?
<Likely you're referring to a Ribbon Worm (Nemertea) like Lineus longissimus, which can be more than 30 meters long>
My other question is What kind of fish can climb trees and where can I find a picture of it?
<Likely this is the Climbing Perch, Anabas testudineus>
If you can e-mail me by Sunday or by 6:00 am Monday morning it will be appreciated for my assignment.
<Use your Internet search engines to find images of these animals... using their common and scientific names. Bob Fenner>
from,  -Steph