Gourami spotted: description, contents and reproduction

The homeland of spotted gourami is Indochina. In a natural environment, fish live in stagnant and slowly flowing water bodies. Local people are happy to use gurus for food, in nature such fish reach a size of up to 15 cm in length. In appearance, these are pretty beautiful water inhabitants, they are very popular among aquarium lovers, they can not only decorate the house for fish, but also benefit by eating all the hydras in it. Have you decided to have a fish like spotted gouramis? The content, its compatibility with other aquarium inhabitants, diet and reproduction - about all this you can learn from the article.

Description

Named so these fish because of the special structure of the lips. They are very developed in gourami and are adapted to clear the glass of the aquarium from the remains of food and outgrowth of greenery. The movements of the lips are very reminiscent of the kiss, especially in those moments when the fish are quarreling among themselves and pushing their wide-open mouths.

Spotted gourami grows up to 12 cm in aquarium conditions. The body of the fish is high and compressed at the sides. Fins resemble thin threadlike whiskers, which along their length correspond to the total length of the body. These tendrils in fish help to sense the environment, they are constantly moving. If gourami spotted sees an unfamiliar object, a fish or a snail, it immediately begins to feel from all sides until it becomes familiar. During spawning, females and males touch each other with mustaches, as if caressing and embracing each other. If it happens that the mustache breaks off, soon after the injury it grows again. Anal fin begins near the anus and ends at the beginning of the caudal fin.

Color gouging spotted - silvery-purple. Across the body there are purple stripes with a dark shade. Near the tail and in the middle of the body there is a dark spot. Fins transparent with white or pale orange specks.
Males differ from females in a more saturated color, in female individuals the anal and dorsal fins are sharper and longer than in males.

Spotted gourami: content

In the content of spotted gurus there is no difficulty, because they are not finicky, but some features still need to know 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 a small house for fish. Before filling it with water, it must be defended for two days. In what water spotted gurami will feel comfortable?

• Temperature - 22-28 degrees.
• Hardness (dH) - 5-35.
• Acidity (pH) - 6.0 -8.5.

At the bottom of the aquarium put a dark pebble or gravel, put several different snags and large rounded stones. Part of the water house should be densely planted with Javanese moss, Thai fern, vallisneria or cryptocoryn. On the surface of the water, place duckweed, salvini, riccia or pistia.

Aquarium with spotted residents is recommended to place in a place in which it will be a few hours a day to light the sun. Fish of this species are very mobile, they can easily jump out of the water and die. To prevent this, their glass house must be covered with a special lid. It must be cleaned once in seven days. Aeration and filtration of water for gourami are optional.

Food ration

Gourami spotted in food is not fastidious, he eats with pleasure both vegetable food, and food of animal origin.

Vegetable feed:

• Crumbs of white bread.
• Salad leaves.
• Oat flakes, finely chopped.
• Filamentous algae.

Live feed:

• Tuber.
• Bloodworm.
• Daphnia.
• Artemia.
• Flies.

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

Reproduction

Gourami spotted spawns in a forty-liter aquarium with a water level of not more than 20 cm at a temperature of not less than 27-28 degrees, the water composition is normal.

A week before the spawning begins, parents should be fed only live food. Male without the participation of a female builds a nest, spending for this occupation about two days. In the ready apartments, the future mother sails to him and starts to throw eggs, the future dad immediately fertilizes her.

After spawning, the female should immediately be discarded, the male gourami himself takes great care of the nest and eggs. At this time he is very attentive and caring, regularly adjusts the nest, transfers eggs to the best place of the house if necessary, creates a current of water by the movements of the fins.

As a result of such efforts, a small number of larvae can be seen in the nest in a vertical position in a day. 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 land the male in time. The remaining small fish 3-4 days must be fed infusoria, then you can go to small zooplankton.

Compatibility in an aquarium with other fish

Gourami spotty - the fish is very peaceful. Such handsome people feel comfortable with other calm inhabitants of the aquarium.
It is only necessary to select for the neighborhood those species that need the same water parameters and conditions of detention.

Ideal neighbors for gourami:

• The Sword Bearers.
• The barbs.
• Complaints.
• Catfish.
• Lailius.
• Danio.
• Pecilia.