# Chocolate gourami biotope



## George Farmer

Four chocolate gouramis (three in photo).  







I decided against Apistos.  With Sumatra wood and Indian almond leaves I figured some Asian fish would be better and appropriate for a 'true' biotope.

I know these guys are difficult, but I like a challenge.  

I took 6 hours to acclimatise them, as the shop pH was almost 8, mine is around 6 (and dropping).

They all looked in a bad way in the shop.  The manager agreed to give me four, FOC.

Water is pure RO, silver sand, leaf litter, wood, 29C/85F.

They are already feeding on dry foods.

Lots of floating plants on their way.  Thanks Ed!

Full tank shots coming soon...


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## Ray

Gosh, you've beaten me to it, but they are the best looking fish I know and they do cast a sort of spell (at least on me) when you see them in the LFS so I guess it was inevitable...

There are some nice Malaysian collecting trips on Aquaarticles, I'm sure you've already seen them, with nice photo's of the biotype, this one has lots of pictures, follow links at the end for more articles:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/tra ... nture.html

The trick would be to make something scenic with leaves and plants, since it would seem CGs need both.  I've been looking though photo's of forest leaf littler, mosses and leaves but its not easy, nor conventional - so don't keep us in suspense, full tank photo please!


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## George Farmer

More pics.  Look out for a blog on PFK soon.


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## Ed Seeley

Fantastic George.  Have the gouramis even bothered with going near the floating plants since they went in?


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## tgc

I love the biotope look, kodus for doing your research on this one.

Oh i can't wait till my garage is built!!


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## George Farmer

eds said:
			
		

> Fantastic George.  Have the gouramis even bothered with going near the floating plants since they went in?



Only when they're feeding.

The frogbit is melting!


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## johnny70

Very nice! wish you had gone for the apisto's, but thats me a big fan of them, maybe you try a SA biotope in the future?

What is the leaf litter?

Beautiful.

JOHNNY


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## Dan Crawford

Looks great and you are clearly getting the hand of that doozy of a camera.


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## beeky

Wow, those almond leaves are BIG!

I hope you do well with the CGs. I read an article about them somewhere, and the bloke bought about 10 or so but they all died one by one with the conclusion of not to bother. I got the impression though that he didn't care that much.

I hope yours didn't suffer too much with the Malawi water conditions.


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## Tom

Nice tank and stunning Gouramis. I think the tank would benefit from some smaller twigs though.   

Tom


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## Ray

I'm waiting for the blog entry to see what George is up to.  He was originally going to do SA Apisto's and now he has flipped to Asian Blackwater so I'm expecting some changes over the coming weeks.  At the risk of being boring I found an even better article on Chocolate Gourami biotype:

http://www.greenchapter.com/article.php?catid=3&id=21

These guys found quite a few plants and fish together with CG's, it won't let me copy paste for copyright reasons but they say:

Plants: Cryptocoryne, Blyxa, carpeting plants, hairgrass.
Fish: Rasbora bakenesis (which I can't find in Google), six band bard, two spot gourami, red freshwater shrimp.

So there is quite a lot of scope for George to do a long running blog again.  Of course, they may all live in different parts of the stream, I'm not sure spotted gourami could get on with CG in a small tank.


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## Dave Spencer

Crikey, George, those leaves are struggiling. Have you thought of dosing EI and some Purigen for water clarity?  

What is like setting up a tank with the emphasis on the fish? I bet it would look even better sat beside a  planted tank for a bit of contrast. 

I am not ready to go that ungreen myself, although I do have a little 24l that could be worth giving it a go in, some time. :idea: 

Dave.


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## CJ Castle

Nice Biotope... Very soon I will be setting up a tank similar to is... However, the inhabitants will probably include a small group of South American Puffers...


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## Ed Seeley

George Farmer said:
			
		

> The frogbit is melting!



Oops!  Hopefully it's just a few of the leaves?  They've come from really soft water so might just be adjusting to the new soft water with the tannins in?  They'll soon get going I'm sure - I hope!!!     I'll make sure I don't throw any more Salvinia (away as that's the only Asian floating plant I've got!) just in case the little bits I sent don't get going!


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## TDI-line

Another tank George, where are you putting all these.   

Looks great though.


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## George Farmer

TDI-line said:
			
		

> Another tank George, where are you putting all these.
> 
> Looks great though.



Thanks, Dan.

This is in the annex's kitchen.  You should come over sometime.

BTW I note that you cleared MA@Crowland out of Tropica plants!  Nice one.

I've just ordered a new Clearseal 60x30x30cm braceless, rimless.  

The scratches on this are horrendous and it has rims..  

I will be trying out AE's new nano filter glassware too.

This will be my biotope-only tank.


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## Garuf

Do clearseal do rimless? can you give us a heads up on cost? This no doubt will be a ruit I want to take


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## TDI-line

All sounds good George.

Can you list what products your using for your biotope, if possible.

And just let me know when your not busy one evening and i'll pop round.

Thanks.


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## johnny70

Any update on this, how are the gourami's doing?

Cheers
JOHNNY


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## George Farmer

They're doing great, thanks.  Growing nicely and very greedy.

Not sure if there's spawning behaviour because I rarely see them, as they're in the other side of the house.

I have Salvinia natans and duckweed completely covering the surface and have stopped water changes.   Just topping up with RO as necessary.

I dose a tiny bit of TPN+ to feed the floating plants.  The plant growth is so huge the water quality should be great.

pH is well under 6.  I've heard reports of pH <4 in the wild!

I'm awaiting delivery of a new Clearseal 60x30x30cm braceless rimless so I can do a proper photoshoot on them.  This one is awfully scratched.

Then it will be time for a new biotope.  Something clearwater.


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## johnny70

Excellent, this one has inspired me to try a simple one hopefully with some chocolates but with some planting of crypts and possibly a dither fish in there.

Cheers
JOHNNY


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## Garuf

I think you should give mexican mollies ago, like the ones that where in the freshwater episode of planet earth, that'd be dead good. 
That or a shell dweller tank.


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## Garuf

Actually it could have been caves... which ever one it was I remember it being fascinating.


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## George Farmer

johnny70 said:
			
		

> Excellent, this one has inspired me to try a simple one hopefully with some chocolates but with some planting of crypts and possibly a dither fish in there.
> 
> Cheers
> JOHNNY



Well, if you can be asked to drive to me, you can have these...


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## johnny70

A very kind offer, thank you, I may just do that, when do you plan on getting rid?

PM me if you would prefer

Cheers
JOHNNY


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## Hugosek78

George you are the best


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