Labyrinth fish pearl gourami has amazing beauty. It has an elongated body, compressed laterally, about 11 cm long, light-silver in color with a purple tint and a scattering of numerous pearly spots. In the middle along the whole body to the tail is a dark strip. The lower part of the abdomen has a reddish tinge.
Pearl Gourami - Content
In nature, the fish lives in water bodies with slowly flowing water and dense thickets. Therefore, the labyrinthine gurami, when kept in an aquarium, needs a clean environment, sunlight and numerous vegetation. He can breathe atmospheric air, unpretentious, adapts well to different conditions, suitable for beginners. They live for a long time - about eight years.
The volume of aquarium for gourami
This kind of fish is recommended to contain in aquariums with a volume of at least 40 liters for 2-3 individuals, 60 liters will suffice for 6-7. It is better to populate them with small harems - for one male - two or three females. Pearl gourami are able to breathe atmospheric air with the help of gill labyrinth, which can cause illness due to the capture of fish by cold air. Therefore, the maintenance of gurami in the aquarium provides for an unavoidable presence of the lid. It should not close tightly so that the space is well ventilated. The optimal distance to the cover is 5 cm.
How to equip an aquarium for gourami?
Aquarium fish pearl gourami need a pond with dense greenery, free swimming areas, the presence of grottoes and snags as a shelter and places for rest and lodging. In an aquarium it is better to plant more plants, in which the gurus will be happy to hide. You can use variegated flower, vallisneria , elodea , on the surface it is desirable to place duckweed in the form of floating "islands". Certainly, we must leave a place where the individual will be able to come out upstairs to breathe oxygen.
Easy aeration to pearl fish will be useful. The type of lighting does not matter - artificial or natural. But pearlescent coloring in a bright environment looks more advantageous. As a primer it is advisable to use fine river sand with a small silting layer of 5 cm - it is convenient to plant plants in it. Excellent coloring of fish looks on a dark background of the bottom. Filtration is desirable, but it is important that the vessel does not create a strong current - the gurus like calm water. Swim individuals in its middle or upper layer.
Temperature for the gourami in the aquarium
Pearl gourami - thermophilic fishes, their content requires maintaining the water temperature at a level of 24-27 ° C. In cooler conditions, they are susceptible to colds. Therefore, the vessel for keeping pearl gourami must be equipped with a heater with a thermostat. Optimum water parameters - rigidity up to 16 °, weakly acidic with a pH level of 6-7.
Pearl Gourami - compatibility with other fish
Shimmering pearl gourami is a peace-loving and slightly shy little fish, but it can be hurt by other more aggressive aquarium inhabitants, even smaller in size. She does not enter the conflict herself - she prefers to hide in the bushes. These fish have filiform pectoral fins, with which they feel everything around them. Additional complications arise because of these "long antennae", which almost all inhabitants of the aquarium attempt. Gourami are also not too brisk during feeding, it is important to follow that they get food.
In the neighborhood, they should pick up more phlegmatic peaceful fish. With whom get along with the gurus in the aquarium:
- neons;
- scalars ;
- discrepancies;
- daneo;
- labeo;
- swordsmen;
- barbs;
- tetras.
Care for gums
Due to the commitment to clean water, pearl gurus, when nursing and keeping in an aquarium, need a weekly substitution of 30%. This is required for the healthy development of fish. Gourami are not easy to eat and omnivorous. Due to the fact that the individuals have a small mouth, they can not eat large food. For the basis of the diet, one can take artificial flakes or granules.
The best delicacy for them will be a live food - small bloodworm, daphnia, artemia, coretra, chopped tubular, small crustaceans give in the period between spawning. Dry, frozen compounds fish also eats, the main thing is that they are not large. Adult individuals can survive without feeding for 5-8 days, if left without food for a longer period - they will die.
Care for fry with fry
Hatch in the spawning fry with gourami with yolk sacs, due to which they feed for the first 2-3 days. Then they need special food - live food for young animals: rotifers, infusoria, microcracker, boiled egg yolk, grated over cheesecloth. After 7-8 days, you can give nauplii artemia. You can feed 5-6 times a day in small portions. On dry food, the young can die.
The first three weeks the water level in the spawning is maintained at 10 cm, the temperature is 29 ° C, the aeration must be low-current, so that the fish do not suck in the device. After the young the labyrinth apparatus will already form, and they will begin to rise to the surface to swallow oxygen. After a few weeks the fry can be lodged with all the fish. Young people gourami in the general aquarium must be fed with protein-rich food, so that the scales properly developed and acquired an attractive color.
Pearl gourami - breeding
To obtain a normal offspring, the pearl gurami's breeding is planned for late spring or earlier summer, when small fodders are available - infusoria, live dust. For the spawning site, a separate aquarium with a size of 20-40 liters is prepared with a water level of 20-30 cm without soil. It should be softer than in the main vessel - up to 7 °, with a pH level of 7.0. From plants put a bundle of riccia , set the capacity in a darkened quiet place. Specimens for breeding are eight months old, a week before spawning, females are planted from males and fed with live food, preferably with moth.
Pearl gurami - how to distinguish a female from a male?
Divide the males and females easily, they differ in appearance. Gurami pearl - how to determine the sex:
- male much larger than female, brighter in color, elongated anal and pointed dorsal fin;
- The female is more modest in size and faded, the fin on the back is round, the body is fuller;
- it is easy to determine the sex during spawning - the chest and abdomen of the male are painted in a bright orange shade.
Spawning of pearly gourami
The female ready for spawning considerably becomes fuller. Then the couple are put in spawning, gradually increasing the water temperature to 28-30 ° C by substituting a warmer one. The male immediately starts building a nest among the floating plants of foam, which he holds together with saliva. When it is ready (for the construction of the house takes 1-3 days), marriage games begin. The male takes care of the female, invites her to the nest, squeezes out the caviar. The grains float to the surface, the fish catch them and put them in foam. For one spawning the female swims up to 2000 eggs, after that it can be planted.
The male takes care of the offspring - protects, corrects the nest, until the fry does not swim. After the youngsters start leaving the house, their father is also planted so that he does not start eating them, and they are engaged in the fattening of young fish. They grow quickly, but unevenly. The fry must be sorted in size so that large ones do not eat small ones. Spawning gurus in a common aquarium often ends up eating young animals by adults. But such a process is still useful for the female - so it is released from the caviar and does not suffer from cysts, while retaining the ability to reproduce the offspring.
Diseases of pearl gourami
Handsome guru pearl, the conditions of detention that meet all the requirements, little sick, is considered a hardy fish, but sometimes can fall ill. The causative agents of the ailments are microscopic fungi, viruses, bacteria, infusoria, worms. The most common diseases:
- Lymphocytosis. On the body of the fish appear wounds, grayish nodules or flat growths of black color. The zones of infection are swollen, the individual looks like flour-sprinkled. To preserve the most valuable fish, red hot rods with a cross section of 2 mm cauterize each lymphocyst. Vegetation is destroyed, soil, inventory is disinfected by boiling for 30 minutes.
- Pseudomonas. The gourami appear dark spots, turning into purple sores, through which other infections can enter the body. For treatment, a quarantine aquarium is used, in which a solution of potassium permanganate is added at a rate of 0.5 grams per 10 liters of water. In the solution, the fish is kept for 15 minutes. You can add 500 liters of ED per 100 liters to a common vessel of bilizin-5, repeat the procedure at least 6 times a day.
- Aeromonoz. It gets to the fish with food, at the initial stage the scales of the individuals rise to the top, they stop eating, they fall on the ground, the abdomen swells and becomes covered with red stains. The disease is contagious and difficult to cure, fish should be planted for at least 10 days, the aquarium must be completely disinfected. At the initial stage, gourami can be cured by adding 200-250 mg of sulfamonomethoxin or 30-50 mg of erythrocycline to 1 liter of water. The fish, which has a massive uplift of scales and dropsy, is destroyed - it does not respond to treatment.