Plecory's Chocolate Gourami Low Tech Planted Tank
 

Chocolate Gourami, one of my favorite freshwater fish. Chance upon them during my visit to Seaview last week, bought 5 of them & kept them in my empty 2 footer. Put in some wood, found it very empty so went to get some plants & lightset. Somehow or rather, it became a low tech planted tank...hahaha. Yesterday went back to Seaview & got myself some shrimps & another 5 Chocolate Gouramis. Hope you all will like it as much as i do :)

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Nice set up bro. Choch gourami is one of my fav too but sadly they are very prone to fin rot.

Actually they are cross-band choc gouramis. Very finicky fish.

Good luck in breeding them, didn't have succes with them....

Thanks both! Yup, understand they are not the easiest of fish to keep. Will try my best :)

Btw, can enlighten me what is the difference between cross-band chocolate gourami & the normal ones? Many thanks in advance.

I got a few of these plants. They will rot in 4-5mnths :( i think i didnt provide soil and co2?

Chocolate gouramis are very sensitive fish coming from true blackwater. Best to keep them in a biotope style aquarium with black water and low tds/ph instead of a planted setup. They will look awesome and be in better health :)

These hardy plants do not need soil, infact you are not suppose to bury their rhizomes under the substrate. May be other factors why they are not surviving :)

Thanks for the advice! Was researching on their habitat & found out that though most of them come from blackwater steams, some are also found in clear water habitats with an abundance of plants. Thus the decision to choose the latter for the setup :)

Oops, my mistake, it is just a choc gourami. A x-band have another short vertical strip just below the front of dorsal fin. It is pretty rare to find in lfs.

Check out seriouslyfish which have photos of both diff type.

It is a choosy eater also, btw.

Yup, but the key here is low pH and low TDS even in the clear water habitats IMO. Your epiphytes won't thrive in such conditions. You could try soil substrate and crypts maybe? Or even root tabs.

In any case these are awesome fish. I would one day like to try keeping them with licorice gouramis and wild bettas after I finish my current project and have a tank freed up

Thanks for the clarification! Oh...mine seems to eat everything. Been feeding them NLS pellets. Hikari algae wafers & they enjoy eating it :D

That's a good idea...maybe if it doesn't work out then I will change the setup according to your advice! :)

Totally agree these are awesome fish. Can't wait to see the tank once you have it set up! ;)