Gourami compatibility with other fish

Gourami is one of the most popular varieties of fish for home breeding. Breeders are attracted by both the unusual color, the beautiful movements of the fish, and its calm, "regal" character. In order for a little pet to delight the owner of the aquarium for a long time, it is worth finding out with whom this species gets along well, and which neighbors it will not tolerate.

Gourami marble is a very bright aquarium fish. Has many fans among home aquarium lovers. It fascinates with its slow, measured, stately movements, has a beautiful marble color, which seems to glow from the inside, and the long whiskers of the pelvic fins quietly feel the surrounding objects and look like legs.

Gourami pretty unpretentious to water quality. For a comfortable stay in the aquarium she does not need a constant flow of oxygen, prefers to slowly dwell in the lower layers.

Gourami marble is the result of long-term selection of scientists and does not occur in natural open reservoirs. The marbled color of the fish is a blurry dark spot, reminiscent of a patterned pattern on the stone of the same name. Very young individuals do not have a clear and bright color; in older fish at the stage of puberty, this color appears, becomes more catchy during the breeding season.

These "regal" persons will not deliberately drive and disturb other fish, destroy their fry. They prefer to eat various small foods in frozen or dry form, as well as live ones (bloodworms, tubifex), fresh semolina prepared in a special way, and canned peas. In case of hunger and lack of basic nutrition, gourami can feed on various parasites that enter the water along with food, snails.

Marble gourami has a peculiar character. In appearance, the fish is calm and peaceful, but there are times when it can show aggression towards other inhabitants of the aquarium. In addition, due to its natural nature, this beauty cannot exist peacefully with all other fish species. Very often, attacks of aggression occur in male gourami during the spawning period, when it becomes necessary to protect their female and the nest with laid eggs. Spawning is the most important process in the life of fish; during this period, any individual is exposed to stress and fears for the safety of its offspring.

The aggressiveness of the marble gourami is due to its natural quarrelsomeness with other underwater representatives. But this problem can be solved by adding fish to them, which will not irritate and interfere with comfortable life. It is necessary to find the best option for the content. To this end, you can move everyone to a more spacious aquarium, place in it more underwater plants, other decorative items that resemble the bottom of a reservoir. In this case, each inhabitant will feel protected and will be able to find shelter for themselves.

For the prevention of aggressive behavior and fights between fish, it is best for a while, plant aggressors and fighters in a separate aquarium. If the size of the tank allows the fish to move comfortably around it, then it will be good to add representatives of more peaceful species of fish to quarrelsome individuals who will not pay attention to the bully and enter into conflicts with him. Thus, aggressive behavior among fighters will be smoothed out.

The best neighbors for marble gourami are scalars, ancistrus, apistograms, neons, minors, corridors. These types of fish have good compatibility with each other, are quite calm, have a balanced character and rarely show aggressive behavior towards others.

Fish of the same size can coexist calmly with the marbled gouram, since the larger individuals suppress it, and the smaller ones can be the object of aggressive behavior. Several gourami can be kept in the aquarium, then skirmishes between males will be minimized.

Each gourami must have a pair, then the fish live in families and rarely conflict. Good compatibility can be ensured by neons, irises, battles, catfish corridors, danios, minors, swordtails, scalars, barbs, koi carps, lyapius, plekostomus catfish. These fish have calm disposition, balanced character, not spiteful towards neighbors, prefer a quiet measured way of life.

Scalars, macropods, lalius and thorns can also live with gourami.

In one artificially created reservoir, if it is quite spacious, it is possible to contain several species of fish that are compatible with each other and differ in uniform keeping parameters. When adding other species to gourami, you need to think about how and where they will spawn and equip nests for offspring. For this, it is necessary to create suitable conditions.

Medium compatibility in gourami with discus, eels. Under proper conditions of detention, these species can coexist quite well.

The main reasons for conflicts and clashes between fish are:

• catchy appearance, lush long fins and a tail, which cannot be ignored by other species of fish that live nearby;
• every fish needs personal space for a full-fledged existence - if some fish prefer to live in the lower layers of the aquarium, and others in the upper layers, then conflicts between them are completely excluded;
• insufficiently spacious aquarium, lack of places for shelter and solitude, a small amount of algae;
• superiority in the size of some fish over others, which allows them to push and drive smaller individuals.

It is undesirable to keep gourami and goldfish together, since both of these species have a spectacular color, long fins, which means they can become the object of envy of each other. Goldfish, unlike gourami, are very voracious, quickly and dexterously grab food without leaving it to others.

Experienced aquarists do not recommend keeping small harmless fish and large predators together. Active, fast fish can damage the long mustache of gourami, interfere with their bustle. Undesirable neighbors include cichlids, cockerels, parrot fish, astronotus. It can lead to confrontation and sad consequences neighborhood with guppies and shrimps, because some can be eaten by others.

The parrot fish always dominates in relations with gouras, due to its firm and stubborn character.

You can not add a lonely macropod to a pair of gouramis Is the largest aggressor of all fish species. He will definitely attack and tear gourami fins, whiskers, drive fry, destroy eggs.

For the novice aquarist before settling in an aquarium it is better to consult with experienced specialists, study the fish compatibility table and only then select species for living together.

For more information on gourami marble, see the next video.