Fish with gourami

Aquarium fish gourami belong to a family of labyrinthine. These amazing fish are also called Nitenos for the pelvic fins, similar to long strands. Like other fish of this family, they can breathe atmospheric air with the help of a special organ - gill labyrinth. If you leave them in a closed aquarium without access to air, the fish will quickly die.

Description by gourami

Gurami - very mobile, brisk, curious fish, they are easy to breed, unpretentious in food, so often found in domestic aquariums. In aquariums, they came from South-East Asia, which is their historical homeland.

The fish gurami looks rather modest. The trunk of pearly gurus has a discreet silvery-violet hue with pearly specks, the coloration of lunar gourames is pale yellow, fairly bright gold, marble and lemon gourami. The brighter the tone of color, the more healthy the fish have. The size of most species is less than 15 cm with gourami, serpentine gouramis reach 25 cm, but in aquariums, both rarely grow longer than 10 cm.

There are several kinds of gurus. The most common:

• brownish gourami;
• lunar gourami;
• pearl gourami;
• honey gourami;
• kissing gourami;
• dwarf gourami;
• chocolate gourami;
• nagging gourami;
• spotted gourami, etc.

How many gurus live?

Naturally, at home, gurus live longer than in living nature - the environment has. The life expectancy of gouramis is 5-7 years, with very good care and favorable conditions of their maintenance can live up to 10 years. Life expectancy of marble gurus, more capricious in breeding, can reach 8 years - it's a strong fish, rarely sick and withstands, in contrast to its brethren, a drop in temperature. The behavior of gurus during illness or before death is expressed in the fact that the fish folds the fins and sluggishly floats on the bottom of the aquarium.

To your fish lived a long time, you need to follow several rules:

• the presence of a small aquarium with a water level of not more than 35 cm;
• Clean water, which is often and gradually changed;
• compliance with the temperature regime - not all species can withstand temperature fluctuations;
• bright, but not hot lighting;
• a mode of feeding - it is impossible to overfeed fishes, it is necessary to feed them variously, but little by little, 2-3 times a day;
• dark soil, driftwood, the presence of plants in the aquarium;
• neighbors with a similar nature and close in size.

Reproduction and feeding by gourami

For reproduction at gurami the male answers. He builds a nest of foam and plants, cares for the female and squeezes caviar out of it, fertilizes it, makes sure that the eggs get into the nest and are in it until the fry leaves them. The female is able to sweep out several thousand eggs. Caviar gourami looks the same as other aquarium fish - fry like a string with eyes and a tail.

Gurami and others

Gurami are animal-eating fish, that is, they can be called predators. In nature, they feed on invertebrates and larvae of mosquitoes. At home, have adapted more to veggie food, but will gladly take care of daphnia, moth, tubule. Gurami can eat a neighbor who wants to grab their territory or, angry, an opponent, are able to destroy their fry, but this is common to many fish. Gurami - calm fish, pugnacious can only be males.

Predators with great stretch, the gurus get along well with other fish, including calmly can get along with the squares and barbs. Do not make friends with gurus with goldfish and viviparous fishes, but not because of their nature, but because of the difference in the desired water temperature.