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Caring
for Your New Pink Kissing Gouramis |
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Name: Pink kissing gouramis get their name from their constant habit of “kissing” each other. These “kisses” equate to a rather hard punch to your shoulder. The kiss-ee responds with a kiss to protect itself from the kiss-er. If you have only one kisser in your tank, it will cause problems with your other fish. The bigger their tank, the fewer problems you will experience with them.
Bullies: Kissing gouramis do not hesitate to push other fishes around. They mix best with larger and rougher fishes. Many get along fine with non-African cichlids. Obviously, these guys grow into big bruisers when kept in large tanks. They’re considered a food fish in S. E. Asia. But what isn’t?
Origins: Kissing
gouramis
originally came from slow-moving waters in Java,
Water Conditions: Large kissing gouramis adapt to nearly any water conditions. The smaller ones need clean water. Velvet is a definite threat in dirty water. Keep them around 75o although they can stand it colder or hotter.
Appeal: Kissers need no special foods or care – except clean water. And everyone loves their underwater “kisses.”
Size: Most kissers appear on the market at about two inches. Most wind up confined to a 10-gallon tank and never exceed four inches. In a 55-gallon tank, you’ll see them grow to six inches -- a good start. They get bigger.
Mixers: Don’t mix these guys with little community fishes. Keep them with big barbs, rainbowfishes, giant danios, medium-sized cichlids and other rough-and-tumble fishes. No Goldfish: Don’t mix kissers with lunker goldfishes. Kissers like to pester these slow movers.
Foods: Kissing gouramis eagerly eat whatever you feed them. They love live foods and frozen foods and flakes and pellets and ...
Sexing: You’ll see little difference between males and females. Look from the top. Mature females will be wider than males -- due to the eggs inside them. However, your chances of breeding kissers range from slim to none. Your chances go way up if you start with one of each sex. Bubble Nesters: Breed them like bettas. Give the male a half-filled tank at 80o. Provide floating vegetation or a Styrofoam cup sliced in half lengthwise. No bubblers or you break up the male’s bubble nest. He’ll coax her under his bubble dome and “squeeze out” hundreds of tiny, floating eggs. Once the eggs appear, you can remove the parents. Gourami eggs float. The fry also float (because of a tiny bit of oil in each yolk sac).
Okeedokee. I've never bred these guy's myself. There's disagreement on whether kissers build a bubblenest or not. I now have eight of them in the 4 to 6 inch range. We'll see what we can do. (02-24-04) Then we'll chronicle the results in words and pictures. Since we see them on the market everyday, we know they can't be too difficult. They should have huge spawns (thousands). LA
Fry Foods: Baby kissing gouramis need infusoria. Ask for our Infusoria Fact Sheet if you need more infusoria info. After they grow a bit, the fry love newly hatched shrimps. Microworms, which quickly fall to the bottom, work poorly for top-feeding gouramis. All fry grow best when fed several times a day. Put in some big snails to clean up the excess. Filtration: Use an under gravel or sponge filter. Power filters eat baby fishes. Sponge filters also grow rotifers on their surface which provide a tasty snack for the baby kissers.
Summary: Looking for a large, hardy, intriguing, active fish? Pink kissing gouramis fill the bill. LA. © 1998, © 2003, © 2004, © 2005 LA Productions
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