Fish tank

[Paul Arden]

Not sure where to put this but who here has a fish tank? I bought one from the local head policeman in part because I wanted to discover more about Giant Gourami but also as a sort of get out of jail insurance card.

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Anyway we tried to capture a baby Giant Gourami but that’s almost as hard as catching an adult one. In the meantime I have a Dwarf Gourami who has gone insane. It’s a male and I plan to introduce four females so he can have a harem, but the fish shop hasn’t had any new fish since lockdown started.

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There were some other fish, which actually spawned and then died and were eaten by this fellow...

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Prior to introducing the sucker catfish I did have a healthy buzzer (chironomid) population after collecting lake water, however the sucker catfish put an end to that.

I haven’t tried angling for them yet.

Cheers, Paul

[Jason King]

Nice tank Paul,
I find sitting watching some fish of a night time with a beer in hand very relaxing....I have kept marine fish tanks for years.
I never forget walking into an aquarium shop here in Melbourne years ago and seeing a giant gourami in a tank....a large fish in a probably not really big enough tank.
Then the next time I saw one was on one of your videos a few weeks ago.
Very cool large fish that ultimately would need a huge tank to keep it happy long term.

Jason.

[Paul Arden]

Man these fish are incredible. I don’t normally associate intelligence with fish, but Gourami are different to anything I’ve encountered elsewhere. It’s not uncommon for the fish to inspect the fly for 1-2 minutes. Once we had a 5 minute refusal:D

The tank is now in the boat!

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Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Christ I hope it doesn’t end up at that angle!

[Jason King]

Haha no not a great “in boat” angle.
I have found different Marine fish I have kept seem to have different intelligence levels.
If I put a trap in my tank with a small opening some will Venture in and out with no problem at all...where some will stumble their way in and then panic and feel trapped instantly....then struggle for hours to get out....if I let them.
Maybe the gourami species is more intelligent than others which would make the ability to catch them on fly more understandable.
I haven’t kept many freshwater fish tbh....not have I ever tried to catch Gourami on fly.....bucket list maybe?....those snakehead are definitely on it.

Jason

Jason.

[Paul Arden]

It’s amazing that there are two species of fish in the same water with totally different challenges that are both at the pinnacle of fly fishing achievement. A 4KG plus Gourami is a very serious fish!! Hard to fool, incredibly hard to land. For me it’s the pinnacle of dry fly fishing.

Snakehead is a stealth shot casters fish. Another totally different set of challenges.

But what sets Gourami apart for me is their intelligence!

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

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Quite a few Gourami and Glassfish.

[Paul Arden]

The Giant Gourami are very interesting. The largest one lives close to the surface where the food is. Any other fish that tries to get close to the surface he attacks. It won’t be long now before I release him back to the lake. He/she is now more than twice the size of the other Gourami. It will be interesting to see if the next fish that takes his place exhibits the same behaviour and has the consequential high growth rate.

Another thing that surprised me is how often they air breathe. Despite the tank having high oxygen they regularly surface.

The other fish in the tank - there are three other species - don’t pay me any attention at all. But the Gourami are always watching

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Well it became a bit violent in the fish tank. The largest giant gourami, who was constantly fighting down the other two giants and the dwarf, got to the size where I released it. The second largest then almost killed the third, so that one had to go back too. The third recovered and started to beat up the dwarf. So that’s also now a lake resident again. I look forward to meeting them all again in a few years time! No more Giant Gourami!

So now I have some other small gouramis, slightly different species but female.

The South American catfish is almost bigger than the bloody tank so I’m looking at a small pond at the resort to release him. And I’ll replace him with a younger, smaller model. And next year I’ll release that one in the same pond.

It’s interesting how the females I got were silver. But now with the presence on the dwarf gourami male have taken on a golden appearance.

Fascinating fish.