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Ian's 80cm (Chocolate gourami!)

Re: Ian's 80cm (Hc gone, got moss)

New fish added!!

I sold the Honeys last week and the tank has been empty (apart from shrimp) for a week. I have been trying to source some Chocolate gouramis for a while now and had no luck. I'm running an RO system, so wanted something that would take advantage of this and always wanted to try Chocs. Anyways a few months back i visited a LFS on the outskirts of Notts and low and behold there they were...Chocs, at this time i was running hard water in my old tank. When i got this set up i rang them and they didn't have any left. Well, i was at Queens medical center today and decided to nip in to Wheatcroft MA (Notts) on the off chance they would have some Chocs in and they did. I have brought 8 home with me and after 3 hours of acclimatising and 2 hours with the light off, i switched the lights on and here they are...these are sphaerichthys selatanensis, apparently quite rare.


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Love the idea of an Xmas moss carpet. Shrimp will love that! :)

Those choc gourami's are stunning!! I only run standard London tap water in my tank so think I can only day dream about having them in mine. Hope they keep well in there for you mate.
 
Those choc gourami's are stunning!! I only run standard London tap water in my tank so think I can only day dream about having them in mine. Hope they keep well in there for you mate.
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Cheers Jay! I wouldn't be able to keep em in Lincoln tap water either. Well i have checked em this morning and they're all alive!

Chocolates look great mate, nice dark colours too which shows there happy. MIne are the other type. Glad you finally went with getting them they'll look great when your tank fills in
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Thanks Alastair, and thanks for some of the inspiration in your tank.
 
Well, a boring Saturday left me to get the camera out...sorry guys.

I'm really pleased with how the Alternanthera Rosaefolia 'mini' is keeping redness under low light. A very nice plant IMO.

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A random Cherry shrimp on a rock

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The 'in situ' shot.

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That's looking really nice Ian, great pics too - I may have to change my corner tank soon... Are you finding having swapped yours is making things a little easier?
 
Dude!

The tank is looking awesome! The plants look über healthy!

Your choc's are great it's great to see them in a big shoal just how they should be!
They are one of my fav fish, a while back Tgm had a show tank full of them and thats what got me hooked.

U can never have enough pics!
Andyh
 
That's looking really nice Ian, great pics too - I may have to change my corner tank soon... Are you finding having swapped yours is making things a little easier?
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Cheers Gary, and yes maintenance is soooo much easier. I'm sure the fish prefer being in a rectangle as well! lol

The tank is looking awesome! The plants look über healthy!
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Thanks Andy! Some insperation was drawn from your lounge tank, so thanks for that.
 
just a quick update, i added some staurogyne repens. I have lost one Choc due to jumping. The Blyxa is growing nicely. I have also found a Green shrimp in my tank...god knows where that has come from!

Growing, slowly, but growing.
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Are you dosing Uranium Ian? 'cause that blyxa looks like it's going critical! :lol:

I think I spy an aponogeton creepin' up the right hand side, will you let the leaves trail along the surface to deter anymore kamikaze gourami?

all the best,
Joe
 
That's looking great mate and love the colours in there so far.
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Thanks Alastair, i'm really chuffed that the red of the Alternanthera Rosaefolia 'mini'.

Are you dosing Uranium Ian? 'cause that blyxa looks like it's going critical!
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cheers Joe
It looks strange doesn't it! I haven't done anything different other that put some white card behind the tank. That'll teach me to buy my C02 off of that Russian bloke.
 
Shame about the Chico too. I've lost 5 in the last two weeks. I'm gutted. Never had any problems before. Feel dead sad. I'd possibly see if you could get something floating on the top for security for them. I've got some salvinia and they loving congregating under it
 
Amano recommends a set square placed in each corner to help prevent jumping in open top tanks. I remember someone trying here and it seemed to help for a while although he did eventually lose more fish through jumping sadly.
 
cheers chaps, sorry to hear that Alastair. I'm gonna hang on and wait for the Crispus to get flowing along the top.

heres a pic from feeding time

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Lovely pic. This is classic choc\shrimp behaviour. You can see the shrimp fighting off the choc by waving its antenna at it. It never failed to amuse me that the chocs always retreat from this.

One thing I noticed when I kept chocs was when the dark colour bleeds into the light band (like in your pic), it means they are stressed out. As a caveat, I did have a different species to you, so it could be that this is a normal variation and yours are fine.

I found that having broad leaved plants that they could hide under improved their colour no end (no bleeding or blotchiness and the white turned bright gold). So I added even more (in the form of large swords and anubias, as well as floaters), and they promptly responded by spawning.
 
cheers for that Matt!

The band on them all is a shade of purple, them the bottom is gold. They haven't bothered the shrimp at all, was thinking of getting some rarer shrimp.

I have also added a Echinodorus Osis at the back of the tank, they aren't as shy as i thought they would be though. They come to the top of the tank when i'm near (waiting for food), they swim in the open part of the tank. Great little fish with lots of character.

did you get any babies?
 
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