Pearl Gouramis

After admiring these fish for a long time, I finally bought some. Because my quarantine tank is small I had to but them in 2 batches. The first batch of 3 was 1 male, 1 female and 1 which looked female in the shop but in the quarantine tank I couldn't be certain. The second batch was 2 females. They came from different branches of Maidenhead Aquatics.

I have had problems trying to take photos of them, not helped by the huge roots hanging from a few mature water sprite plants. I'm afraid these are the best I could manage  They are fairly new to the tank and quite skittish, I'll try and take some better photos when they are less skittish, whenever that is.

Yes, I do have 2 filters. I used to have just one but the motor stopped working. I had a smaller version of the same filter in the cupboard from a tank a shut down a few years ago so I put the pump head from that on the filter in the tank. Then rather than buy a new pump for it, I bought a (cheaper) second small one and split the media baskets between the two. The combined flow rate is about the same as the original filter on its own.



The first photo is the undecided female and half of the definite male.
The second is the male and some water sprite roots.

Hi @Sue

When I kept Pearl Gouramis, they used to fascinate me with their 'feelers' which, I think, are elongated pectoral fins. They would check out anything new that was added to the tank. For example, a piece of driftwood. A quick touch was all that was needed and then they'd move on. I particularly remember the male doing it.

I do hope you have more success with them than I had. As I've mentioned elsewhere on TF, my male was very aggressive towards the female at feeding time and I believe this ultimately led to her demise.

BTW, nothing wrong with your piccies. In fact, they're pretty good.

JPC

You've a lot more plants than I had recollected! Is the rasbora in the first photo a harlequin - I think you have espeis/hengelis but that first one looks more like a harlequin to me..?

It's an espei, harlequins have a bigger black patch 

Ah - maybe my elderly harlequins' patches are shrinking as their body shape changes.

the most elderly plants as they go a bit straggly.

If you've managed to achieve 'elderly plants', then you're a much better plant-keeper than you give yourself credit for. 

The water sprite started out as a small pot from an Ebay seller. It was probably a combination of the water sprite and all the micro-organisms everywhere in the tank that resulted in zero ammonia & nitrite when I accidentally left the filters turned off for 24 hours. In fact, given how long it took to get the QT ready for the gouramis, I suspect there are hardly any bacteria left in the filters.

Pearl gouramis are quite a bit bigger than honeys, if that helps you decide 

And as I discovered when I called in at my favourite fish shop, small (ie very young) pearls are impossible to sex. That's why I ended up at Maidenhead Aquatics as theirs were a lot bigger.

Great pics, I think your gouramis have fantastic markings.
I imagine that your fish love your water sprite. As I was looking at the plants I was thinking "my dwarf puffers would love swimming through all of them".

The water sprite is one of the reasons I decided to get the pearls as I know all gouramis like floating plants.

So far the male is the most active of the group but they all run and hide when they see movement outside the tank.