# [Wet Thumb Forum]-My Sphaerichtys osphromemoides



## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

This topic is a tribute to my chocolate gourami, they died beacouse of a terrible bacterian disease transmitted by a Rasbora




























In their memory

[This message was edited by Vicki on Mon September 01 2003 at 06:56 PM.]


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

This topic is a tribute to my chocolate gourami, they died beacouse of a terrible bacterian disease transmitted by a Rasbora




























In their memory

[This message was edited by Vicki on Mon September 01 2003 at 06:56 PM.]


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## Guest (Jun 3, 2003)

Rest in peace.

They look very nice. Can you get more ?

Join as at www.njas.net


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

Sorry about your losses, Xema. But you should be commended on keeping this species. They're like the discus of the gourami world: touchy, touchy, touchy!

 
(Click for pics)


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

That's a shame, Xema, I'm so sorry--they were just beautiful! They are such a lovely fish, and as 2la noted, not easy to maintain well--and hard to find besides. I hope you're able to replace them.

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## Tenor1 (Mar 3, 2003)

Sorry Xema!

You must be a very knowledgeable hobbyist to keep them. I've hesitated to get them and settled on Sparkling Gouramis instead.

What do you feed yours? I've read that live foods are a must for them. Have you ever breed them? 

This is diffinately more of the more delicate species in the hobby and certainly NOT a fish for beginners.

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

I´m keeping chocolate gourami about 2 years, and they have been reproducing during that time. I script an article about this here.

I fed it with moskito´s red larve and dry food and some time live daphnia and live moskito´s black larve.


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## António Vitor1 (Feb 2, 2003)

José Maria great article...

makes me want some of those sphaerichtys...









sorry about those fish..

Regards!
António Vitor


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

Yes, most interesting, Xema! Congratulations on having bred these beautiful fish. Happily for me, my oldest son, the one with the Masters in Spanish, is staying with me at the moment, so he helped me read it! On the top of his list is the chance to go back to your beautiful country--he spent last year at Alcala de hernanes in grad school, and was able to travel all over Spain and most of Europe. He really enjoyed the time he was able to spend in Lisbon, too, Antonio. OH, to be his age again and have those opportunities...

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## António Vitor1 (Feb 2, 2003)

glad he visited Lisbon...









I live a few kilometers from Lisbon in a very small village, Zambujal...
well even in Portugal no one knows where Zambujal is...









Regards!
António Vitor


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## imported_Svennovitch (Feb 1, 2003)

I am truly sorry, Xema!
We all know how it is to lose a fish we liked very much









Sven


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## Tenor1 (Mar 3, 2003)

Xema is an accomplished hobbyist! There are not many people in the States capable of breeding this species. I know of someone that tries everything to breed this gorgeous fish to no avail. 

We are fortunate to have Xema as a contributor to these forums.

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

Tank to all...
Tenor you get that my face is red, je je..

chocolate is a wonderfull species, and I hope to get some fish in the future and follow keeping its.

I´m preparing a special tank to their.

more information about this special tank

Grettings

"Helarte es morirte de frio"

[This message was edited by Xema on Tue June 10 2003 at 08:19 AM.]


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## captain (May 12, 2006)

Do you have any web sites or any other type of information about Chocolate Gouramis? I saw some in a LFS and I might want to try keeping them if I can provide a suitable environment. The LFS said they will have a steady supply of them for a while. It's actually the first time I saw them in a store.

Thanks,

-Steve
See profile for tank info


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## Tenor1 (Mar 3, 2003)

Steve, I suggest watching how the fish do in your LFS. Water conditions and live foods are extremly important. Chocolates prefer extremly soft water and some hobbyists even try collecting rain water for them, but that's more to induce breeding. Most of them only take live foods, which is another issue but easier to remedy.

What is your LFS charging for them? They aren't readily available here unless one begs and pleeds, lol. The LFS's that are familiar with them KNOW how hard they are to keep in Los Angeles water. 

In Germany and Switzerland the water conditions seem ideal for them and now I learned that Spain must be the same way. I wonder if Steve's LFS has a local breeder? I would LOVE to know what he/she does to keep them.

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## captain (May 12, 2006)

My tap water is really soft, GH and KH < 1. That plus CO2 I can reasonably keep the pH down and the water soft. As for feeding I would probably start a grindal worm culture.

I have been wanting a feature fish in my tank for months. My angels are too big and have to go to a new home. The Chocolate is really cool looking and would make a nice contrast to the plants (its all about the plants).

I asked the sales person at the store and she didn't know where they came from. I asked if there was a local breeder and she said she didn't know. But, I bet if I asked she would find out. They are selling for $9 a piece. They had about 10 of them ranging in size from about half-an-inch to a little more than one inch. They looked great in the tank. The brown color was very well developed and there was no apparent sign of disease or stress. This is the only chain pet-store I have bought fish from and they always seem to do a great job with their fish and plants.

I'll ask about the local breeder and pass on any information I get.

Just found out that they are wild caught.

-Steve
See profile for tank info


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

Captain...

What´s LFS? is the same Live Fish Store?

I know some japanese web site about this fish, that I don´t understand it, I only saw the pictures.

all I know about chocolate gourami I learned in a Spanish magazine and talking with other local breeder.

In my region quality water is very good, ph 6,9 kh 1 gh 3, It´s very soft. But this isn´t so in all Spain.

Originally I bought 4 fish, about 4$. In a few month they was breeding. They were born about 44 babys chocolate.

The problem to find this fish in stores, is that It has few breeder, and they have to importe from Sumatra and Borneo, and this fish aren´t very common in all satation of ther year.

I was very lucky person to find it.


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## captain (May 12, 2006)

LFS = local fish store but live fish store works too.

On the surface it looks like my water quality is similar to yours. What temp do you keep the Chocolates at? I have read that they prefer water temps between 72F and 90F degrees. There is not much consistency with the information on the web. Wish I could read Spanish!

-Steve
See profile for tank info


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## Tenor1 (Mar 3, 2003)

Wow, Chocolates at a chain store is fantastic. It sounds like you have the right conditions to keep these. I would keep the water temperature in the low 80's for them. 

Steve, there is a translating program that some members use. I don't remember what it's called but I think it is a free download. Maybe Bridget knows the sight, although I don't she uses it.

Good luck with your fish,

Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## captain (May 12, 2006)

The chain store is Petland. The one I go to seems to have fairly knowledgable people and they have the best plant selection of the stores I frequent. Maybe the Petlands in other cities are of equal quality. They may all get the same fish so other Petlands will have chocolates too.

-Steve
See profile for tank info


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## Zane Hovatter (Feb 24, 2003)

If it is Petland in Duluth, then they are getting the chocolates from a local distributor, and while the other LFS's can purchase them from the same distributor, they generally won't touch chocolates for above reasons, put the plant tanks at that shops Ph range from 5.7- 6.4 niiice and soft.

PS the Petland name is just that, other than the name these stores share nothing, (ie; franchise, not corporate, individual owners) so what you find in 1 store will probably not be the same in another apparently the one in Duluth has free reign to do for the fish as they please. I was in there today and asked about the Chocolates feeding and conditions and they were mixing up bloodworms, glassworms, spirulinia powder, selcon, garlic... they said it was a three day rotation diet they feed, not too shabby, also the chocolates were readily accepting frozen. Again though, not a chain store.
2 cents added

[This message was edited by Zane Hovatter on Sun July 13 2003 at 07:16 PM.]


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> I know of someone that tries everything to breed this gorgeous fish to no avail.


Ah yes, there is my calling card. Thanks for the props Tenor1.







It's true: I tried everything to breed this fish but just couldn't do it. However, I have heard from numerous people in Europe, Netherlands, etc. that have done it fairly easily, so I think it definitely has something to do with water quality over there. It's been over a year since I last kept this fish, but have been getting the urge to obtain some more...

Xema, this is a great fish (my favorite freshwater fish by far) and it's nice to find someone so dedicated to keeping it. It's terrible to lose one, let alone a group of them. I checked the first link you provided, and am excited to read it...but I'm absolutely terrible at Spanish. You don't happen to have an English version, do you? I am very interested in your setup. I also saw in another thread that you had a little paludarium setup for chocolates--I would love info on that as well, but only if you don't mind. You provided a link up above about a special osphro tank, but it doesn't work--is this the paludarium or a different tank all together? I hope you plan to continue keeping them; they are truly an incredible fish.

[This message was edited by skylsdale on Tue July 15 2003 at 01:58 PM.]


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## Tenor1 (Mar 3, 2003)

Sky, glad you found this thread, and yes, you ARE the person I reffered to. I can't believe that a year has passed since you had these fish. I was just getting back to the hobby and started reading the board when you were posting about Chocolates. 

Sky - Aquabotanic has a neat little 12-gallon tank for sale. It is a complete self-contained system with built in filtration and @2 WPG PC lighting. Do you think this would be suitable for a pair of Chocolates? I'd still like to try my hand at them.

Thanks,
Carlo

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by skylsdale:
> I checked the first link you provided, and am excited to read it...but I'm absolutely terrible at Spanish. You don't happen to have an English version, do you?


Here is a google translated version,
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iespana.es%2Faquagarden%2Farticulogurami.htm&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

*My Digital Gallery*


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

You rock ekim, thanks!

Tenor, that tank could work. I first started keeping these fish in a Eclipse System6 before I knew anything about them. I have found that they can be extremely nasty with each other (my experience is that some sort of hierarchy is established, but I haven't confirmed this with anyone else). An article in TFH from a few years ago was written by a keeper of osphros, and he commented on their aggression toward each other as well. However, if you pack that tank with enough wood and plants you should be fine (and keeping in pairs will help, although osphros seems to like a few more. Man, there's just so much not commonly known about this fish...and so much more to learn). I would be interested to hear Xema's experience and opinion on this.

Anyway, the System 6 I had was absolutely crammed full with plastic plants and java fern. I bought ones that were way to tall for the tank, and they would cascade out over the surface of the water. There was a very small open space in the front middle of the tank, but other than that it was a jungle. The osphros loved this, and I didn't see any sort of aggression out of them, just a constant foraging around on the substrate. I would say you could safely keep 4 osphros in there--just pack it full of plants from top to bottom.

Water quality will be the single most important thing. Keep it clean. Try and keep the pH fairly low. I could never get mine below 6.5-7.0 no matter what I tried...so I wouldn't worry too much with your L.A. water. You can always add a gallon or two of distilled or RO water from the grocery store to soften it up a bit. They come from stagnant pools in peat swamps with a pH sometimes dropping to 3.0 and no measurable hardness whatsoever. I always kept the temp. between 80-82*F on my tanks. I have a feeling that they are like many spp. of apistos and discus in this regard--they can acclimate to a somewhat higher pH than they're used to in the wild, but if you have any intentions of breeding them you'd better drop it down pretty low.

The first few I had ended up eating prepared foods (flake, etc.) no problem, but the second group I got (through another shipment at the LFS) wouldn't so much as look at anything unless it was wriggling all over the bottom. So I was forced to keep a steady supply of California blackworms in the fridge, something my wife wasn't too happy about. You might be able to train them over to frozen bloodworms, but I wouldn't guarantee it at all.

[This message was edited by skylsdale on Wed July 16 2003 at 09:41 AM.]


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

Hi to all

Sorry I don´t had paied atettion of this post.

Sky, if you need traslation of this article, say me (although my english is not very good)

Actually I haven´t got this species, but I search some to keep it and try its reproduction again. I am in contact with a local fish distribuitor to obtain some individuals.

The more important aspect to keep it is water quality. pH less to 6,5 and a very soft mineralitation. I´m very lucky person to live on here beacuose the water quality of my town is fantastic to the chocos. But in any case I added osmotic water.

The food is important too, I feding with live prey, like as live daphnia, live red moskito larve and black moskito larve. When I increased the frequency of live food, It was reproduced.

I am keeping 3 male and 2 famale in a 40 liters tank.
The paludarium mision was to imitate the original condition of its eviroment.









www.aquagarden.net
www.acuarioifilia.net


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

Now go out, after I speak more about this

Grettings








Feel the Chocolate Gourami power
www.aquagarden.net
www.acuarioifilia.net


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

Thanks Xema. The water quality, food, etc. seemed to be the easy part for me. However, aligning the cosmos into the proper position over the U.S. to spark them into breeding proved extremely difficult.

One thing I've taken an interest in--but there seems to be no available or *experiential* information about--is their behavior and temperament. I have found them to be an extremely docile when it comes to other species of fish. However, when it comes to other osphros, they are downright ruthless. In my experience, I noticed that one male seemed to take on a more intense coloration and moved into the "leader" position of the entire group. In turn, there was one male that ended up at the bottom of the chain, and was constantly by himself or being scared away by the bull male. Flaring and stand-offs wasn't uncommon by the head male. I was actually surprised, given the docile and whimpy behavior that most literature gives you about this species, that they could be so extremely ruthless within their own species.

As for your article on the osphros, the above link that ekim gave me provided a very rough translation, but it broke down when it came to the breeding section, which is the information I am REALLY interested in. Your experiences in this area would be much appreciated.


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

Hi Sky

My experience in behavior it´s the same that
your. But I think that it isn´t very agressive species themself. They have a rank, there is an alfa-male, and alfa-female. Every one have their position into ther group, and in ther feding time, you can see this behavior.

I don´t consider agressive this species.
On a recently article in a Sapnish magazine, It´s said that it´s an agressive species to themself. In this article it speaks about a ideal number of individuals per tank, about 12 or 14 per 200 liters, but I am seccessful with 4 individuals per 40 liters. I recomend to put a lot of pieces of wood and very much plants.

About the reprodution...

The pair made a circular dance, some like this























The female put the eggs on floor, and it´s fertilized by male. Famele takes il in her mouth, she incube it in her mouth 14 days during. 









If something fails, she expel the eggs in 5 days (it´s a critical time), if it´s surpassed this critical time there is a lot of possibilities to be successful.









to be continue








Feel the Chocolate Gourami power
www.aquagarden.net
www.acuarioifilia.net


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

I used diferent method to down the water mineralitation and pH, I introduced some wood, and dry leaves (ficus benjamina). And I use blond turba (what´s namend in english?) to filtration, and how I said before add osmosis water. Frecuentlly water change help it to reproduce








Feel the Chocolate Gourami power
www.aquagarden.net
www.acuarioifilia.net


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

Where is skylsdale?








Feel the Chocolate Gourami power
www.aquagarden.net
www.acuarioifilia.net


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

Xema, that is FANTASTIC! Did you design that logo?! Anyway to get a version with "skylsdale" in there?









I was bored and thought I would peruse these forums (I don't come here often as I'm not a huge planted tank enthusiast--more biotopes than dutch or amano styles, which seem to be the prevailing "correct" way of doing things around here). Anyway, I'm always interested to hear how you do with your chocolates. I considered keeping them again, but I don't think I'll attempt it unless I can get ahold of an RO/DI unit--messing with the water is just too much trouble, when this piece of equipment could just produce what I need. Again, that logo is wonderful!


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## imported_Xema (Apr 1, 2003)

I´m glad you like my logo

this is for you









at me too, i like biotope, but you can obtain a good biotope mixing aquascaping and biotope.

Is there some forum board about chocolate gouramis or laberinth fish?

I´m obtained 10 chocos from Singapore, they will arrive about september 15. And I´m constructing a biotope tank for this chocolate, with criptocorines, and a lot of woods and driftroots and drift leaves, and bitter water (with tanines of wood, and adding Fe quelates). About october I wait have some pics of this DIY proyect.








Feel the Chocolate Gourami power
www.aquagarden.net
www.acuariofilia.net


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

Thanks XEMA! Very cool.

There aren't any boards or forums that I know of that deal specifically with chocolates. I know there's a mailing list through the British Dentrobatid Society, but I didn't get good results through that. Chocolate keepers are very few and far between.

Definitely keep us updated as your tank comes about--I'm interested to see how you will pull it all together. It's always fun to start a new tank.


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## Steve Hampton (Feb 13, 2004)

Let's start our own resource for Chocolates. My pair just celebrated their one year anniversary. These guys have quickly become my most prised and favorite fish. They are incredibly difficult to photograph well though. Out of hundreds of attempts this poor example is the best I've done.


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## skylsdale (Jun 2, 2004)

Good work Steve. I notice you're from FL, which I've always heard is notorious for hard water. I assume you use an Ro/DI unit...if not, what's your water like?

Now it's time to spill it all: your experiences with their feeding habits, conspecific aggression, sexing (which I've always found pretty difficult, regardless of what the books say), etc.

Here's a link to a few pics of my old chocolates: http://www.geocities.com/skylsdale/chocolate


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