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I agree with sneaky_pete. And its looks like a girl.
Females have round doral fins, while male have a pointier end to their doral fin.***Tiger

Link on this fish.
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/anabantoids/opaline.php

Last edited by TigerAngel at 29-Mar-2005 04:01

Kitten

I think plexiglass may have a tendency to bow when in high humidity

You are correct. I have 2 small plexiglass lids, and they have bowed. The only way to stop them from bowing is
1) have hinges on the back and hooks on the front to keep plexiglass straight or
2) each week turn the lids over. ***Tiger

After looking at it, I think you are right yooki. It looks like a powder blue dwarf gourami. I thought it was opaline at first because of the dark blue markings, but I'm not so sure now. I'm sorry, but I'm sure it isn't a pearl gourami. Now, dwarf gouramis are pretty peaceful and will get along with almsot anything. However, bettas are related to gouramis and might see the fella as a rival. I would watch out for any agression. If the gourami makes it, you could easily build a community tank around it.

I hope all works out
- DJ :88)

b

TigerAngel attached this image:

Looks like you're having some trouble with the pictures, tiger....

Powder Blue Drawf Gourami and link on Gouramis.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=882

TigerAngel attached this image:




Last edited by TigerAngel at 28-Mar-2005 23:13[/font]

djtj - Yeah Your not too wrong there. My mistake, the pic was in the wrong type/mode, not in JPEG. Grrr. ***Tiger


Last edited by TigerAngel at 28-Mar-2005 23:15

Thank you everyone for your advice! I noticed about the lid bowing down, and built a brace to put across the center of it. I'm pretty darn sure that should do the job. Thanks for the heads up.

I live in Fort Worth, Tx. We have some pretty good independent places around. I walked into one today just to looks and it was like, amazing. The entire place was filled with fish, and the hostess was very knowledgeable. There are at least two other places in this area too that I want to scope out.

I don't think the fish is a pearl gorami, and I think it has more spots then it appears in the photo, thus leaning me away from the blue goroumi (but he MIGHT still be that). Here are some much better photos I was able to snap if it helps:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/yooki42/detail?.dir=f87e&.dnm=3fa2.jpg&.src=ph
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/yooki42/detail?.dir=f87e&.dnm=85d5.jpg&.src=ph

Health wise he seems to be doing much better. He'll eat, and he hangs in difeerent areas of the tank. He still seems very sad though. He may be lonely, and he may just be scared and live in corners for the rest of his life. He is already twice the size of the betta, so I guess he's pretty old. I looked at some very similar fish, dwarf blue gouramis, at that fish store today but they were about a third his size. Would he still be happy with these guys? Could he school with them or anything? I think I would like some more, eventually =)
He and the betta don't fight. They don't interact much, but when they do run into eachother there isn't any aggression. Thanks for the concern.

Yaaay, my topic has a little fireball on it!


Last edited by yooki42 at 29-Mar-2005 00:37

Your Mystery fish is definetly an Opaline Gourami, which is a color morph of the blue Gourami. It will grow to be about 5 inches in length, and they are somewhat aggressive. A Gourami expert in here may be able to tell you whether you have a male or a female. Males are very territorial, whereas females are not so much.
It would be fine by itself, and will get along with other community or very mildly aggressive fish.
Congrats at saving him and good luck in the future!!


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Yooki - whereabouts are you located? If you can, try to find something called Biospira... it's basically bacteria in a pouch that you can buy to instantly cycle your tank. I don't think you're going to see much of a cycle with only two fish in there. It's probably going to take a LONG time to cycle like that. Barring that, steal gravel or decor from established tanks to help the cycle along.

I'm sorry to hear about the pleco... they are cool things, aren't they? I remember we used to have two huge plecs when I was younger... I think they topped out at 11 and 13 inches before we had to give them away. This was considering they were practically as long as the tanks they lived in! (And no, we didn't know any better... common plecs really belong in a pond once they get that big).

I definitely agree about fish stores... you're as likely to get incorrect information as well as good information. (The reason why our plecos - which were supposedly only to get four inches long - far exceeded what we were told.) I asked where you were because we have plenty of people around here that might be able to direct you to a GOOD store or perhaps even offer assistance.

As for the lid you made up... might want to keep an eye on that. I think plexiglass may have a tendency to bow when in high humidity. Don't quote me on that... it might be another similar material, but I thought I'd just give you a head's up. Nice job, though.

Welcome to FishProfiles... I hope you have learn and most of all, have fun. Pop into the chat room if you ever need quick help or just want to join the craziness.

Oh, and as for my opinion, I believe the mystery fish is an opaline gourami, as well. That's what I thought when I first saw it. Also, that was a GREAT buy, despite the condition the tank was in. You got to save a fishy life in the deal, so that makes it all the more special. AND! You got a beautiful betta, too! You're lucky. *wishes SHE could find that good of a buy!*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

TigerAngel attached this image:

They do look sad. I wasn't surprise it was a Opaline Gourami. To have lasted in that tank before you got it. ,These fish are hardy. The Pearls are a little less hardy. I had a Gold Opaline (3 spot/blue), and it had swim bladder problems. It fought for a long time before giving up. My sister has one also with SBD and its been a long time now. Swims weird. Poor thing. Re aggression. It all depends on that fish nature. Some are aggressive (my gold wasn't, my blue was) I had my gold in with glowlight/ guppys/barbs no problems. I had 3 gourami in together.
1 indian banded gourami male
1 3 spot blue opaline gourami female
1 drawf flame gourami male
of these 3, the 3 spot blue was the most aggressive. The other 2 got on fine and hang out together. ***Tiger.

I agre with tiger angel, looks like a female to me too.

I was right
That was...before I changed my mind

Anyway, I had an opaline gourami before, lovely creatures. You could easily build a community/slightly aggressive tank around that fellow. I would still watch the betta, but I doubt he would mess with something that could grow to be twice the size of him.

In a 55 gallon you could easily have:
opaline gourami
tiger barbs or larger tetras
a bristlenose or smaller pleco
school of cories

You really have alot of options with an opaline, as they are pretty easy-going on the whole. The only thing I would advise against is buying more than one gourami. Like bettas, they are pretty intolerant of their own kind. Even females like yours can be nippy sometimes.

Congradulations on an awesome find
- DJ :88)

2 spot gouramis seem to due best either by themselves Or in 3's- 1m and 2 females of the same color morph. They all have a very different personality, some will be very aggressive, others wouldnt harm a fry, and everything in between. If you add more- rearrange the tank while the new ones are floating- that will mess up the old ones territorty and it will be like adding 3 new ones at once.

Hey, wow, that's an awesome idea hca. I had never heard of rearanging the territory before.
I don't know if I'll add more gorumis yet.
I'l post a fish wish list later in another thread and ask you guys what you think about it. Thanks a lot to everyone!

I recently have been using Proquatics Bacteria Starter. It works pretty well and is fairly cheap. I got mine at Petsmart.

Proquatics bacteria starter is good. Very similar to Cycle, but not as concentrated.

Seachem has come out (finally!) with their new bacteria starter called "stability" which is supposed to have a couple of strains of bacteria that are not present in cycle. Supposedly it is similar to biospira, which is good because biospira is impossible to find (at least in canada). Highly recommended. I haven't started a tank lately so haven't bought any, but I've heard very good feedback.

The fish is most certainly an opaline gourami. Some of them are peaceful, but a friend of mine had her two full grown gouramis (they were a good six inches) completely slaughter her betta and many of the other fish in the tank. This was in an 80g.

*chuckles* I recognise all the ornaments in the tank; we sell them at Petsmart. Looks good!

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

Thats correct. Thats why I said some Bettas. My fella just loves it. And the silk plant is in a corner where there is no movement at all. He rests in that plant or on top of the power head. I had a betta that the slightest movement of anything inside his tank or outside, would make him jump. Very skittish he was. Thats why I said it depends on the Betta. ***Tiger.

Yikes!
Well...unfortunatly sometimes the fish could pull thru, but sometimes not. Often they've become so acclimated to the horrid conditions that they suffer a massive ammount of shock when put in good water. I liberated a tank in similar condition ...while it did have enough water in it it also had an inch of white fuzz on the substrate .

Pics would help with the ID, otherwise have a look thru the profiles section of the site. As for the betta...they don't like that much water movement...I'd actually suggest it going in the 5 gallon and giving it weekly water changes. As the plants grow up it might feel comfortable in the tank but without some hideing places it'd do better with the smaller tank.

I doubt that the ammount of plants in there are enough to eliminate the cycle, but you may see less of a spike on ammonia and nitrIte. In the future it's generally not a good idea to take gravel from a LFSas there's a high risk of disease.

Welcome to the site...stick around we'll get you to get a few more tanks .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"