Cinnebuns Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 Long story short, I was sent 3 pearl gourami but only 1 is currently alive. It is a female. The person who had it before said he kept it at feet level so it didn't get to see humans a lot. I have had it about a week now. It's starting to warm up to me and the tank a little but it hides almost constantly. Sometimes when I walk up to the tank it will stay out front for a few moments before darting back. I'm not sure if this is normal new tank adjusting, missing the 2 friends it lost, or a behavior because of lack of human interaction from before. I'm considering getting it a friend and I know my LFS said they have 2 in stock. Do you think this would help? 29 gallon - about 25 male guppies. 12 panda cories, 2 hillstream loaches, a few mystery and nerite snails. @laritheloud I know you are informed on other grouami. Do you know about pearls? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 Maybe temperature? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnebuns Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 Oh. Interesting you bring that up. He did mention that one concern he had sending them in this month is because he had been keeping them at a warm temp. I also acknowledge it was dumb of both him and I to attempt to ship these fish at this time. When they were sent it was unusually warm for this time of year but still not wise. Anyway, yeah maybe. I'm gonna ask him what he kept them at. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 (edited) On 12/22/2022 at 1:11 AM, Cinnebuns said: When they were sent it was unusually warm for this time of year but still not wise. Anyway, yeah maybe. I'm gonna ask him what he kept them at. Yeah, I was just looking at stocking and temp requirement differences. I was checking some random article for the pearl and it mentioned that the species needs Betta type of temps and I'm assuming that's too warm for some of the others in the tank? I had a ram, moved it from a tank I was breaking down to the community tank and within a few days it passed. It's entire personality went downhill and the poor guy was just suffering and it took me a few months to realize what went wrong. That's what came to mind when you mentioned the lack of energy. Given what you had just mentioned, it might be something like the above situation, or it could be having issues adjusting to the new temperature and surroundings and just taking time to acclimate. It's tough. Dean mentioned because he keeps some species super warm that he takes weeks to bring them down to lower the shock and stress when they leave his care. Edited December 22, 2022 by nabokovfan87 autocorrect issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchaj Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 I just got a group of Pearl gourami about 3 weeks ago. It took a solid week to 10 days for them to come out much and not hide when I approached the tank to feed. Now that they’ve associated me with food they’re coming to the front of the tank whenever I approach. Hopefully yours comes around! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnebuns Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 On 12/22/2022 at 5:12 AM, Dutchaj said: I just got a group of Pearl gourami about 3 weeks ago. It took a solid week to 10 days for them to come out much and not hide when I approached the tank to feed. Now that they’ve associated me with food they’re coming to the front of the tank whenever I approach. Hopefully yours comes around! Out of curiosity, what temp are they at? What size tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dutchaj Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 The tank is 5 x 2 x 2 (150G) I have a temp controller set to 73.5-75.5 theyre with 4 bristlenose, 24 juvenile Odessa barbs and 11 Juvenile Boesemani rainbow the pearls are about 3-3.5” I’d say 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 I kept a pair of pearl gourami's for years in a 50 gallon with cherry barbs skirt tetras and bristlenose I kept the temperature 77-80 didn't have any problems 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldfishgirl Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 (edited) I have kept pearls before they are a great fish! Did you put the pearl in with the guppies? If it did not have another active tank mate before that might be part of the problem. Losing the other two would also stress it out. The temp. might be part of the issue. Have you tested the water? ( sorry if I missed that) Edited December 22, 2022 by Goldfishgirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnebuns Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 (edited) On 12/22/2022 at 9:07 AM, Goldfishgirl said: I have kept pearls before they are a great fish! Did you put the pearl in with the guppies? If it did not have another active tank mate before that might be part of the problem. Losing the other two would also stress it out. The temp. might be part of the issue. Have you tested the water? ( sorry if I missed that) That's entirely why I decided to list that it's in with guppies. I was curious if that was one of the issue. I have tested the water. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate. It's heavily planted. So much so that I'm shocked how well she can hide from me lol. Edited December 22, 2022 by Cinnebuns 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldfishgirl Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 The guppies could be a factor if the pearl did not have active tank mates, your water is good. Is the Gourami staying at the bottom of the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnebuns Posted December 22, 2022 Author Share Posted December 22, 2022 On 12/22/2022 at 1:49 PM, Goldfishgirl said: The guppies could be a factor if the pearl did not have active tank mates, your water is good. Is the Gourami staying at the bottom of the tank? Not usually. Mostly just in the back hiding in the plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 I have eleven of them in a 40 gallon breeder with corys and tetras. I keep the tank at 75F. I would definitely recommend adding more. While they aren't schooling or shoaling fish, they are social, and do best in groups. While it's certainly possible that your fish will be more outgoing after more time, it would still benefit from more tank mates of the same species. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnebuns Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 On 12/22/2022 at 9:33 PM, JettsPapa said: I would definitely recommend adding more. While they aren't schooling or shoaling fish, they are social, and do best in groups. While it's certainly possible that your fish will be more outgoing after more time, it would still benefit from more tank mates of the same species. That's what I've concluded. I already contacted my LFS and they have 2 in stock. After this storm goes away I plan to get at least 1. Considering the 2nd if it isn't 2 males. At 3 tho I might be concerned about space. It's a 29 gallon with a shitton of guppies already. I honestly wasn't planning on keeping all of these guppies but I was unable to rehome as many as I had hoped. The backup plan was to take them to the bad LFS but part of me hates the idea of them going where I know they won't be cared for. It might be the best choice for the tank tho. Anyway, back to the gourami. Since pearls are larger than the dwarf gourami I'm not confident of putting 3 in there regardless of the guppy situation but idk. What do you think? If you are anything like me you appreciate a visual of the space being used when deciding stocking. Here's a short video: https://youtu.be/_oEqEjfPyrs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 On 12/22/2022 at 9:47 PM, Cinnebuns said: . . . Anyway, back to the gourami. Since pearls are larger than the dwarf gourami I'm not confident of putting 3 in there regardless of the guppy situation but idk. What do you think? If you are anything like me you appreciate a visual of the space being used when deciding stocking. Here's a short video: https://youtu.be/_oEqEjfPyrs I think three pearl gouramis would probably be okay in that tank if you're asking about room. With all the guppies I won't address the bioload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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