Wild caught gourmais?

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Marinemom

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Apr 8, 2006
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This is the deal. I purchased two pearl gourmais from the LFS a few days ago. The store told me that they are not wild caught but I am almost certain that they are. I do not like to endoese pulling fish out of thier natural habitat and would rather have those that are domestically raised. Anyways, the reason that I think that these particular gourmais are wild caught is this. Thier coloring is not what you would normally see in a pearl gourmai. Thier colors are much more intense and they have red coloring from thier mouth to the underside of thier bodies. Thier behavior is that they just are so stressed and do not swim around. Instead they just sit and sulk either at the top of the tank in the corner or at the bottom of the tank. They also will not take any kind of fish food that is offered in the aquarium. They wil not take frozen food, pellets, flake food or any kind of homemade food either. I purchased two of these such pearl gourmais and now I believe they must be wild caught. They will not eat or swim around. The tank has two eheim classic 2215's going on either side of the tank and there is also an aquaclear 110/500 running on this tank as well. I have a small powerhead going on each side to help move the water and there is also a bubble wand going. The tank gets weekly water changes of about 35-40% and in fact had a water change like this the day they went into the tank. Of course the water is declorinated with prime when the new water goes into the tank. I have tested the water and the ammonia and the nitrite are sitting at 0. The nitrate is at about between 5 and 10. The PH is at 7.2. The tank is a very seasoned tank since it has been up and running for more than five years now. The other tankmates are some bosamoni rainbow fish, a madagascar rainbow fish, some tetras, a common pleco, a galaxy vampire pleco, two pictus cats, and a striped rapheal. The tank is 125 gallons and is six feet long. I thought that this would be a suitable enviroment for them but they do not like thier new home. If these fish are wild caught as I suspect, how do I stop this practice from continuing other then not buying them anymore? Also what can I do to make these fish more comfortable in thier new home?

Any suggestions or ideas and help in this situation would be greatly appreciated.

Marinemom
 

Chickieepooh2u

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Jan 12, 2006
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Try feeding them live food. That might make them more comfy, and if they're wild caught that's something they would be used to. Brine shrimp is my live food of choice. It's easy to hatch too.
 

Star_Rider

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Dec 21, 2005
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give them a few days to get acclimated..keep an eye on them .

I've had angels not eat for a week when first introduced into a new environement. my rule of thumb now is to not feed them for a day or two since it would just be wasted anyway.

as for what you can do to stop the practice of catching wild fish..good luck.

many of the fish we keep are actually food for a lot of people.

I personaly believe that wild fish should be introduced into aquaria just to keep wild genes in the mix.
 

Marinemom

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Apr 8, 2006
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If I give them live food, am I not risking the intoduction of possible parasites into the tank? If they do take live food if I decide on that, how do I wean them to regular aquarium food such as thawed frozen foods?
 

liv2padl

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Oct 30, 2005
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i think it would be a very rare gourami indeed that was caught in the wild these days.
 
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