Freshwater Tropical Fish Guide - the Blue Gourami
Lee Dobbins


The Blue Gourami, sometimes also called the 3 Spot Gourami is a
popular freshwater tropical fish for aquarium keeping. these
fish are usually a light blue color and have three dark spots,
one on the base of the tail, one in the middle of the body and
the eye which looks like the third spot. The Gourami type of
fish itself comes in several colors, the blue which you often
see in pet stores, gold and opaline as well as a few other rear
of varieties. These fish can grow very large and are best
suited for larger aquariums.

The Blue Gourami is a fairly easy fish to keep and will exist
fine on floating flake food that you probably feed to the
majority of the other fish in your tank. However, like most
creatures, these fish do need a little bit of variety and it’s
good to throw in some freeze dried blood worms or frozen brine
shrimp every once in a while just to be sure they are getting
all the vital nutrients that they need.

If you buy a Gourami fish that is very small you might be able
to start them off in a smaller aquarium but eventually you
going to have to get a 50 gallon or larger as the fish grows.

This species can grow quite large and you want to be sure that
you house them suitably. you also need to be sure that you
have a good heater on the tank as these, like many other
freshwater tropical fish, require the water temperature to be
between 70 and 82°F. Other tank conditions include a PH of
6.0 to 8.8 and a hardness of 5-35 dGH.

Since these fish are used to thickly vegetated waters as found
in their native tropical waters of the Far East, the Gourami
will feel right at home if you have a lot of plants in your
aquarium. They get along with other fish of their kind but you
need to make sure that you have many Gourami’s and preferably
different type’s in the tank to keep them from ganging up on
the other fish. It is best to have at least 4 Gouramis in the
tank and even better if you can get a mix of the blue, gold and
opaline varieties. Generally, you want to stick to having only
one male and the tank as they can be territorial.

The Blue Gourami enjoys the company of the other varieties of
Gourami. You could keep Gold, Blue and Opaline Gourami
together peacefully in the same aquarium. Oddly enough, if
your tank has only one variety of Gourami with other species of
fish, the Gourami will gang up on the other fish. When you keep
a mix of Gourami in the tank among other fish species, the
Gourami tend to focus on their own type and leave the other
fish alone. It is recommended that you have a minimum of four
Gourami’s in your tank, with a mix from the different
varieties.

The Gourami can get along in the tank with other fish of the
same size and can live peacefully with Barbs, Clown Loaches,
Bala Sharks, Danios, Rainbow Sharks, Red Tail Sharks and
Rainbows.

If you take excellent care of your Gouramis and provide them
with the proper tank conditions, they can live to be four years
old and grow to be 4 inches in length.


About the Author: Lee Dobbins writes for
http://www.fish-tank-guide.com  where you can learn more about
keeping a fish tank including which freshwater tropical fish
are best for your aquarium.



Search our Site