Giant gouramies in 4500 gal, Tatushka ~22" and Oos ~16"

thebiggerthebetter

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We got all 10 GG's in one of the 4500 gal now:

1x standard, grey osphronemus 1.5-2ft
3x pink form, two 1.5-2ft and one 1ft+
4x red tail, three 2ft and one 1ft+
2x elephant ear exodon, one 2ft+ and one 1.5ft (its story below)

The two latest rescue gourami from Casey of Kissimmee, FL had been upgraded to 4500 gal at around 1 foot size a month ago and have been doing well in there. In a small tank, 240 gal, both proved to be terrors to some tank mates while leaving others alone. The sunset/pink GG bullied the red tail GG badly, so they were swiftly separated into two different 240 gal. Didn't pay attention to 8 lima shovelnose catfish tank mates. The red tail GG didn't ay attention to its tank mates either - 1ft small scale mud carp, two 1ft bullheads, 3ft SA lungfish, but the moment I placed a 1.5ft FL gar in there, it was biting its fins nonstop.

The story of the smaller exodon GG. Elephant ear giant gourami aka Osphronemus exodon, 1.5 feet / 45 cm, 3 years old, was attacked by unknown tank mate(s) overnight in one of our 4500 gal tanks, then transferred to 1800 gal and to 240 gal to recover. Started feeding well again after 2 months in 240 gal. Returned to the same 4500 gal tank in about 5 months (sorry, I misestimated in the narration as 3.5-4 months). Has been in the tank for a month now, no problems noted; numerous potential attackers had already been gone from that 4500 gal. This recovery rate is roughly 4x slower than from similar injuries to an average large catfish.


 

jjohnwm

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I'm finding this thread really interesting; I'm a fan of these fish but never realized that there were several species in the genus. I had always thought that we were just dealing with colour varieties of O.goramy. These several new-to-me species have really re-sparked my interest.

Hmmm...maybe just one more monster....?
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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thebiggerthebetter

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Awesome shot!!

I'd guess this is Charlene though... because of the near absence of the nuchal hump.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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The 10 GGs have been doing well, except an occasional dispute of the pecking order, resulting in a bit of fin tatter:

 
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thebiggerthebetter

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Ten giant gourami 2x osphro 3x pink 2x elephant ear 3x redtail 1.5-2ft/45-60cm in 4500gal/17Kliter

 
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thebiggerthebetter

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thebiggerthebetter

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