Pearl Gourami  3/30/07
Ok I have a question
I have a pearl Gourami and for over a week now it has been laying on it's side.
<Bad behavior... some Gouramis do "lay about" quite a bit, but not this genus, species>
I believe she is pregnant as she has gotten very big.  She's not acting any other way except to be laying on her side.  It's almost as though she has no ability to stay upright.  If any of the other fish in the aquarium try to pick at her the male comes and protects her.  My question is what would make her lay on her side and why would the male be trying so hard to protect her, could it be because she possibly might be pregnant?
also do they have live births or eggs?
<Lay eggs... are bubble-nest builders... akin and kin to the more popular Betta (splendens)...>
Any information would be helpful.
Thank you
<Mmm, please read here:  http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/anabantoids.htm
and the linked files above... Something is amiss here... I suspect your Gourami is not "filled with eggs" but suffering from "bloat"... Read on. Bob Fenner>

Another (different) Gourami question
Hi all,
<Hello!  Sabrina here, today>
My wife has a 3 inch sub adult male pearl Gourami. He is currently in her 10 gal. community tank. He is very nippy and aggressive to his tank companions.
<Wow.  That's a touch unusual for this, the most peaceful of the large-ish Gourami.>
She is planning on moving him into a planted 20 gal long tank with Cory cats. She would like to know what other fish would make good tank mates? She has read of the pearl being kept with paradise fish or angel fish, would one or both be ok?
<In a 20gL, angels will really be pushing it; not a good choice for a small tank at all.  But paradise fish would be an excellent choice!  If you end up getting a male paradise fish, do keep an eye out for any aggression between him and the pearl.  Another neat option would be to get a couple of female pearls, instead; that could be a lot of fun.  Enjoy!  -Sabrina>
thanks,  Dave & Kathy

Pearl Gourami
Hi my name is Sandy and I have recently acquired a 55 gallon freshwater aquarium. I was over feeding my fish per the local fish store. Blood worms shrimp brine and flake food. I have two pearls fairly large 3.5 to 4 inches long. I purchased test strips a canister filter came home tested my water did a 1/3 water change hooked up the canister along with the aqua Clearwater filter and the nitrate nitrite levels in control. The nitrite was up the first night and I got it so the strip doesn't turn any color now and the nitrate still turns pink but below 40.
< Ideally you would like to keep it at 25 ppm or below. 50 ppm would be somewhat high to where I would start to think about doing a water change soon.>
My water is hard and the alkalinity is off a bit but Ph is fine. However I have lost one blue neon dwarf Gourami he actually started bulging on one side I put him in the freezer and helped him out of his slow death. I then lost a pink kissing Gourami how seemed to stay at the top of the tank for a long time like a week same spot would try and move around a bit would eat very little but seemed to lose color and get very thin. Then she/he just went and lay down on a rock behind a plant and died after a day or so. I now have one of my large beautiful peaceful pearls doing the same thing saying in one spot staring off looking small and thin.
She's running her mate off obviously upset I don't know what to do. So far I have only lost Gourami' is there an illness that I can treat for them is this something I need to treat the whole tank. I have a lot of fish and I am really worried. Please help. I don't wan to sit and watch another hoping it will just get better. Thanks if you can reply or help in any way. Tanks about 78 degrees did a water change partial 9 days ago test strips look ok?
Sandy Kores
< If your tank is new then I would continually test for ammonia to make sure that it does not read at all on the test kits (Zero Reading). Ammonia is the biggest killer of fish. If the ammonia is under control then the next item to check is nitrites( Also a zero reading). These are not as deadly as ammonia but they do stress out fish to where they die from diseases that you are describing. The third is the nitrates(25ppm, 50ppm max, in some fish 15ppm is too high!). These are the least toxic of the three and still need to be kept in check. To keep these levels in check I would service the filter every other week no matter what it looks like. On the weeks that you do not service the filter I would vacuum the gravel while doing your water change. When you do this you would be amazed at all the junk in the gravel. Don't do this all at one time or you will remove all the good bacteria that convert the wastes to nitrates. Watch the feeding too. You should only give them enough food that they can eat it all in a couple of minutes. You are feeding a very rich diet that can be too much of a good thing. Make sure that the filter is moving at least 150 gallons an hour. More is better. If after all these things are in check for a couple of weeks and you are still losing fish, then we can talk about treating for diseases.-Chuck.