pygmy gourami

[shadow999991]

so i saw these little guys at my lfs and had to have them there so cute, i have them in my 10 gallon with my 3 male guppies (males killed off all my females) and countless red ram snails. i wanna know if there gonna try to kill my guppys? and if they need floating plants? (i for java fern in the bottom of the tank)

[joel.uejio]

Do you have a pic? I'm guessing they would be either "honey dwarf" (Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna) or maybe "sparkling" (Trichopsis pumila).

I believe both of these are very peaceful, so might be more of the abuse-ee than the abuse-er.

[shadow999991]

there the sparkling, cuz i was gonna get honey gouramis but than i noticed these little guys (they also didn't have anyfemale honeys)

[joel.uejio]

I've never kept sparklings, but they look very timid to me. I doubt they would hurt the guppies -- I'd actually worry that your guppies might hurt them...

[shadow999991]

ok thanks for the tip i'll keep an eye out

[jpappy789]

Sparklers are indeed timid fish, in my experience. They also prefer more cover than being in the open so floating plants are pretty much a must IMO.

If anyone would be the aggressor it would be the guppies for sure. They also do not have a very long life span.

[msjinkzd]

Man, get some pics :) I haven't seen these guys for awhile. I was considering importing them but was unsure of how well I could house 150 even temporarily, lol

[Chrisinator]

Have some plants and caves for them to hide in! They are such cool fish! I wanna get some but no room!

[jpappy789]

Man, get some pics :) I haven't seen these guys for awhile. I was considering importing them but was unsure of how well I could house 150 even temporarily, lol

Really? A LFS near my home town has some in stock pretty consistently.

[msjinkzd]

I don't have LFS ;) I have to be my own LFS!

[jpappy789]

Well of course! :duh:

[shadow999991]

lol well once they come out from the java fern i'll try to take a pic for you guys, i had one out in the open for awhile, and the guppys ignored him. but how short of a life span do these guys have?my lfs had no idea on the care or anything this was the first time they got them in.

[jpappy789]

Hard to say.

I had mine for 3 months then they both "withered away". They lost all activity and appetite and suddenly one morning I found one dead. Happened a week or two later with the other.

No visible signs of disease.

Lupin had a similar experience. Unless you know how old they were when at the LFS, its hard to say how long they will last.

[shadow999991]

well maybe i'll to breed them then idk

[lateinningmagic]

I don't have LFS ;) I have to be my own LFS!

Don't sell your body

[shadow999991]

small update, my only female gourami died so now i have 3 males (i think)

[Lupin]

I've never kept sparklings, but they look very timid to me. I doubt they would hurt the guppies -- I'd actually worry that your guppies might hurt them...

Sparklers are indeed timid fish, in my experience. They also prefer more cover than being in the open so floating plants are pretty much a must IMO.

If anyone would be the aggressor it would be the guppies for sure. They also do not have a very long life span.

You'll be surprised how damaging most sparkling gouramis get.;) My own sparkling gouramis terrorized my fancy guppies to the point one male fancy guppy got his tail shredded to nothing. I suspected my zebra danios at first until I caught wind of a lone sparkling gourami attacking the guppy while the guppy struggled to escape.

A few other AC members attested to that before. I did not initially believe their accounts until I saw with my own eyes the incident.:shakehead: Don't be deceived by their looks.:grinno:

[jpappy789]

Interesting....

[shadow999991]

well there coming out more, but my camara sucks so i can't get a good pic for you guys lol

[jooranda]

i have some sparkling gouramis an they are ok most of the time but they will fight the shrimp for food lol an i lost one the other week an i havent had them very long

[bazil323]

As for that lifespan thing, I kind of remember someone posting that the longest they had heard of someone keeping sparkling gouramis alive was 6 months. If you could get them to breed, that would be awesome.

[Lupin]

Yes, 6 months is the longest, Bazil. That's my experience. Too bad..They are beautiful but I hate to keep shortlived fish.

[bazil323]

I agree. I had wanted some for my 20g long, but I just couldn't justify spending so much for the fish and shipping only to have them die right away. Unless I could get them to breed, it just doesn't seem worth it to me right now. Perhaps once I get get a proper fish room set up and can really experiment with it, I'll give it a go.

[jpappy789]

Same here. I really like the fish but the costs are too high for their life expectancy.

[bradlgt21]

I got 2 of them in my 3 gallon eclipse. They already breed once but I wasn't prepared and I think the male while guarding the nest was eating them. Hopefully they breed again and I can seperate them. They seem pretty timid as I have mine with Cherry Red Shrimp. The only time I have seen them aggressive is when breeding they were crazy aggressive, but that's normal when breeding and defending nests.

[Anubias Design]

Hey All,
Trichopsis pumilus is a beautiful little jewel of a fish. They are generally rather timid and will do best in a species tank or a nano tank with a school of one of the smaller rasboras such as one of the Boraras species. They will do best in a planted tank and will be more visible because they will feel more secure in this environment with all those places to hide. The Boraras will act as an early warning system and will also encourage the gouramies to be out in the open more frequently. This species should certainly live for longer than a year in the aquarium and I would expect a life span of around 2 years to be typical. If you are losing them in a short time line then there is a problem in the setup you're using. In most cases, they are probably being kept with more active, faster-swimming species and are consequently not getting enough food. When folks mention that they wasted away over 6 months, that was probably what happened. They also prefer soft, acidic water and may not live as long in hard water. They will do ok on a diet consisting entirely of high quality dry food but will certainly benefit from the addition of some live food to the diet. They are very difficult to sex so posts stating that the only female died make me wonder if we are talking about the same species. I've had them a number of times over the years and have sold thousands of them and have never found them to be at all aggressive toward other species.
Mark

[jpappy789]

I dont know about that...I'm pretty sure my pygmy gouramis were out competing my brigs ;)