Weird behaviour

[Munkii]

Hey

I'm new to keeping gouramis, but I decided to add some to my tank which holds mainly tetras of various kinds.

One thing I have noticed though, is that my gouramis will swim to the surface every so often and take a mouthful of air which they release again straight away as a small bubble.

Is this normal behaviour? or is this something I should be concerned about?

-Munkii

[William]

Hi
This is perfectly normal and you shouldn't be worried.

gouramis breed air ( through an organ called labyrinth) and goes up to the surface to breed. In fact they will drown if you prevent them from surfacing.

regards

[Joseph]

What do the babies look like? :lol:

[William]

the babies are very very small and look like a short needle with a head on.

[Full3R]

William i think Joseph was trying to make a joke when you William wrote "breed air" instead of "breathe air"

But also Munkii the Gourami along with Siamese Fighting fish "Betta Splendons" in their natural habitat are use to having poor water quality very often so they use this "labyrinth Organ" to take air so that they can breathe in the low airated water.

i once kept gouramis with guppies various tetras and a small young oscar and i went away for 2 weeks with my uncle and my cousin to help out at the boat rapairs shop to returned home to a very murky fish tank my younger cousin came to visit and she accidently knocked the hole container of fish food into a small 14 litre tank and the water could hardly be seen threw but all my fish were dead except the 2 gouramis and the Betta due to their labyrinth organ they were at home in the murky water, none the less i quickly cleaned the tank and 3 weeks later with a little hard earned cash from my uncle i purchased a larger tank and more community fish :)

[William]

A missed that. Intersting typo on my part. ;-)