Keeping wild caught fish. Crossband chocolate gouramis

I never realy liked Gouramis. That is until Pet Stop got some in during May this year. To be spicific they were Crossband chocolate gouramis. I only found out that they were wild caught today as I assumed they were tank breed. Despite this small slip by me I couldn't help myself. I just had to have some.

Now being cautious with these, said to be, difficult to keep fish I raided the www for info. They naturally come from slow flowing, tannins stained, streams with ph as low as 3 to 4 and tds of below 50ppm. Still not knowing the deep water I'm diving into I notice that tank bread is more forgiving and ph of 6 and tds of about 100ppm should be fine.

After the Kutubu rainbow breeding ended I converted my 1,5ft tank for the chocolates. Got some Langa substrate to buffer the water at about 6ph and using tap water, at about 120ppm tds from tap, I started the tank. Tank was running at 27°C with a Jebo 501 hob filled with ceramic balls and prefilter on the inlet. Had an air stone running for more surface movement as the flow of the filter wasn't doing much in this regard. I added a load of dried Oak leaves to give the tank a more natural feel. Foto 1.

On the 30th of June I got 4 chocolates after a long hour of sorting through males and females. To my knowledge I got 2 males and 2 females. Tank water matched the lfs water but I dripped them in over a 2 hour period. It took them a total of 15 minuts to settle in the tank before swimming to the front demanding food. I was extremely happy with this reaction from them but have to thank Shawn from Pet Stop for the way he kept and treated these fish since they arrived.

I soon realized that the tank was too small for them as there was a reasonable amount of chasing going on in the tank. On the 14th of July I cleared out the 2ft corrie tank. Netted the chocolates into a bucket with heater and placed it into a polystyrene box with a airstone running. Wanting to make sure everything was right in the new tank for them I kept them overnight in the container. Using all the plants from the 1,5 and 2ft tanks I created a jungle for them to hang out in. I added a second hob, smal Dophin, but added 2 pieces of plastic to the outlets to get the water flowing away from the filters, towards the front of the tank. Even though they are extremely ugly, to look at, they are effective. Foto 2.

On the morning of the 15th I found 1 of the fish on the tiles. I still don't know how he/she jumped out of the container as there was basicly no opening at the top. Heart broken I dripped the remaining 3 into their new home and they were swimming around as normal right from the start. I also added a Khuli loach and a load of shrimp to clean up uneaten food.

On the 16th I went back to Pet Stop and was lucky to get the last 2 they had available. So now I had 5 and I was happy.

I have reduced the tank temp to 25°C and added a stocking filled with peat moss to the tank. Only doing a 20% water change once a week with ro water I am able to keep the tds in the region of 80ppm. Not 100% about this reading as I compared my pen to a more accurate meater. His was 150ppm and mine showed 190ppm. And at 2ppm mine showed 8ppm. Ph I can't give and exact number as the test kit I have measures above 7. Guessing but the ph is defnitly belowe 7 and should be in the region of 6.

On the 8th of August I noticed 1 male and 1 female did not come out to eat with the others. After a while of searching the tank the male made his appearance but still no female. Fearing the worst I started searching outside the tank but nothing there. Back from work the evening I found her hiding between the plants and driftwood. But something was not right. She doesn't eat. I finally saw her clearly and realized what the problem was. She was holding eggs in her mouth. Foto 3 ( top female bottom male) I was ecstatic and scared at the same time. How the hell can this be possible. I havn't got any open tanks to raise more fry in.

Now according to the geniuses on the www fry will be released after 8 to 20 days. I'm still waiting patiantly. After all this happened I had my life changing experiens arriving home from work on the 14th of August. Going directly to the fish room to feed the Kutubu fry and give a pinch of food to the always hungry chocolates I noticed that there wasn't peace in the tank. 3 of them were huddled in the top right corner while the male and female was at the bottom right. Expecting to see fry I was surprised to notice that the courtship wasn't over. For how long, I can't tell, as time was standing still for me, they twirled around one anothere. The male darting of to chase away anyone comming out of the corner. In the end I had the awesome privilage to video the courting and egg release.



This made my years of fish keeping worth it. And now I wait for the fry to show up and test me again.

I have been feeding them from the start with crushed Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 pellets as I was extremely lucky to get wild caught fish that do take pellets, 1 of the reasons I believed that they were tank breed. I expanded their feeding later to include micro worms and frozen daphnia.

I have realy not gone out of my way to induce spawning and never expected it to happen so soon.

I'm extremely sorry for this long post and appreciate you reading this far. If there is anybody that has any experiance with chocolates please share your info here as I would like to know how you have done it and where I can better at what I'm doing with them.

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awesome, great looking fish!

 

Awesome, well done sir. Hats off to you!

 

Thanks. They are just awesome and stay small, compared to other gouramis. Max out at about 4cm

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Thanks but please remember my Dad is sir. I guess luck played a great part in all of this as well.

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Only SIR I know is SIR JUICE ... but probably wrong thread. What a nice story @pierreschoonraad. Love the detail - thanks for sharing this story with us. Good luck on the yet another impossible breeding program.

Later Ferdie

 

Some nice Chocs there. I used to have 4. After about having them for 2 years I had a tank burst. Then I had zero

 

Pleasure in sharing. All the detail is there cause I can't keep a story short. Even if I try. Will see where this leads and post as it develops.

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Thanks man. Very sad about the tank burst. Do you mind sharing what tour conditions were in keeping them?

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I had them in a standard 4 ft tank. Lots of plants. Aqausoil as substrate. Lighting was 2 x T5s with reflectors. Tank mates were pencil fish, otocinclus and shrimp (Lost all my chocs and both my otocinclus during the burst, no pencils or shrimp lost.) Ph was about 6.5. I was EI doing KNO3 weekly with a 50 % WC weekly with normal tap water. This was about 3 years ago.

 

Thanks for the info.

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This is awesome @pierreschoonraad !!

Thanks for all the detail, love it
Certainly keeping fingers and toes crossed on this and all the best

 

Looks awesome! @pierreschoonraad !!

 

Hope to see you writing about all the fry soon.
You seem to be becoming our resident fish breeder of more exotic fish than guppies...

 

Thanks. Apreciate the support

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Thanks man

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Thanks. Some breeding is planned others just happened. Took a big step in my fish keeping when I got them. They were the fish I got to up my fishkeeping habbits. I can slack on the other tanks, as there is hardy fish in there, but here I have to stick to what they want.

I will see how it goes with the fry if and when they get here. Still learning as I go along.

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7 days have gone by since the spawning. No fry yet. I'm feeling as stressed as they time just before my daughter was born. Unfortunately I'm the dr on call. Whill post any news as I get it.

Feeling bad for the female. Saw here last night. Came out to try and eat. She will aim for a piece of food and then let it be. She was doing this for about 5 minuts before going sulkily back to her hiding place. To starve yourself for your kids sake is dedication. I take my hat of for her.

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I know how you feel @pierreschoonraad ,
our Geos are the same... they hold the eggs and then the babies in their mouth and the poor mom does not eat for days and days
Once the babies are born, then the dad also helps with keeping them in his mouth
Its amazing

 

I think the worst part is you don't know how many fry there might be in the end. At least the chocholates should release the fry when they hatch and then their basicly on their own.

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