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I know dwarf gouramis are all the same species, just different color variations... flame, neon, powder blue.

What about opalines, golds, pearls, chocolates, and the like? Are they just "regular gouramis" (as I see everyone refer to them as in the forums), or do they collectively have a name? Also, aren't golds color variations of blues?

What about giants, kissing, and other larger gouramis? Are they giant gouramis, or do they have a colletive name?

]<]Dani<]<

Gold and opaline gouramis are color variations of the blue. For the other gouramis, just look here.

This page has information on many different gouramis.

[span class="edited"][Edited by sirbooks 2004-09-03 19:53][/span]

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Thanks for the response books but that's not really what I was asking I'll give an example:

Person A posts saying they have a 29g tank and would like a peaceful community tank. Person B suggests, let's say, a couple schools of tetras, corys, blah blah blah, and a gourami. Now, in most cases person B meant a a dwarf gourami. Person A doesn't know this, so they say they like gold gouramis. To set them straight, person B tells them dwarf gouramis are better than _______ gouramis(fill in the blank. "regular"???) because they're less aggressive and smaller.

Kissing and giants are ________ gouramis ("large"??? giant???"

Does that make more sense or did I make it worse? :%)

]<]Dani<]<

OK this is gonna get confusin (maybe) any way.

The so called neon dwarf ,flame or turquose are the dwarf gourami.
The so called gold blue and opoline are all the same species also.
But the sparkling gourami, chocolate, kissing, giant, climbing perch (spotted, and striped), pearl, moonlight ect. are all diff species. ( i know ther are more but thats the ones i can get off the top of my head.

Okay I understand what Garten's saying. I'm pretty sure she means that even though the different types of gouramis are different species, we tend to catergorize them into 3 catergories:
dwarf (including power blue, fiery red, etc.)
regular (including blues, golds, etc.)
large (giants, kissing, etc.)
Even though they are totally different species for the most part, since they sometimes get around the same size people might say, "get a regular gourami" which means get something like an opaline, not a dwarf.
OK, so A does this make sense
and B was this what you were referring to Dani?



[span class="edited"][Edited by ferretfanatic 2004-09-03 20:46][/span]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

THANK YOU LIANA!!! Yay someone understood my nonsense :%) :%) :%)

I think I understand what you mean. The Neon, Powder, Coral Blue etc are different color vaients of the same fish Colisa Lalia (Dwarf Gourami).

The Opaline, Gold, Blue are all variants of the 2-spot Gourami Trichopodus trichopterus.

There are also some new color variants of the Thick Lipped Gourami( Colisa Labiosa) coming through.

This causes confusion with some people, a Thick Lipped Gourami, while having very similar color and shape to a Dwarf is not the same fish as you would find out when the Thick Lipped grew to twice the size of the Dwarf !

Apart from these variants all Gouramies are completely different species and have different personalities and requirements. For example I would not reccomend Chocolate Gourami to anybody but an expert fish keeper has they have very strict requirements on both water quality and feeding.

The Giant gourami become a huge ugly monster of fish, which where I live are used as food (very tasty cooked in a banana leaf filled with herbs and spices)and are definately not suitable for an aquarium.

Generally I would say be wary of any post that says , get a gourami, a cichlid, a tetra or anything else without being specific. They are not all the same and usually indicates the poster maynot know as much as they'd like you to think.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Okay I understand what Garten's saying.

THEN PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME!!! She's my girlfriend for over a year and I don't even understand what the heck she is saying! :%):%)

Okay, ready rasco? Dani was questioning the fact that sometimes people classify gouramis into groups of dwarf, regular, and large, even though they may not be exactly the same size, or may be a TOTALLY different species. Make sense?

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

The Giant gourami become a huge ugly monster of fish....

Actually there are two fish called 'giant gourami', Colisa fasciata and Osphronemus goramy. The former only grows to ~5" and is similar in coloring to some of the dwarf gouramis and blue paradise fish. The latter is the true giant.

With the dwarf group don't forget C. sorta, the honey gourami, which is also known as C. chuna

And the oddballs, some more difficult to keep, others not seen as frequently in stores: croaking, licorice, combtail, sparkling, chocolate

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Want to be more confused?

I was just reading in Aquarium Fish magazine about chocolate gouramis...sure there is one common name but there are half a dozen species that are called chocolate gouramis. Few make it into the aquarium trade, but all have slightly different requirements (some breed in a ph of 4.0).

Ahh...but you have to be really dedicated to keep them.

Actually I have a C.Fasciata. Wasn't aware they were also called giant gourami. Beautiful fish, terribly shy, but certainly no giant.

I've seen the chocolates for sale a couple of times here. Incredibly beautiful fish but definately a species only tank and a lot of dedication.Some day

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.