Opaline Gouramis

I bought 2 opaline gouramis yesterday. They were fine when i got them and when i took them home and put them in the tank, they were not swimming around. I am concerned because they were swimming happily when i saw them at the pet store. I followed all procedures with letting the bag float and etc. My gouramis just hang out at the bottom and dont move although they are alive. Are they naturally shy or is there a problem? I have a clean tank and there are six zebra danios living with them. Please help. The tank is about 20 gallons, take or give.

have you tested the water? the water from the petstore and your could have been quite different so there probilly just stressed out and will perk up in a day or two

Welcome to the forum!

How long has your tank been up and running?

Is it already cycled?

The tank has been running for about 7 months so im pretty confident that the tank is cycled.

Thanks. I hope that is the case.

Ok,

I was wondering about a mini cycle, but 2 gourami shouldn't be enough to throw it into a mini cycle.

Keep us posted, I hope that everything goes well!

out of curiosity how long is a mini cycle.

Gouramis, like other fish, are sensitive to changes in their environment, but if they're healthy they should become active in a few days. The drip acclimation method reduces the moving shock, so you may want to try it the next time you introduce new fish. Opaline Gouramis, by the way, grow up to five inches long and may wind up being too big for your aquarium.

Thanks. My Gouramis seem to hide whenever I come to the tank but they are faring better than yesterday. If they get too big for the tank, i'll donate them to my friend who has a bigger tank. Also what is the drip acclimation method?

They may hide because they are not accustomed to the world outside their new aquarium. Anything large and moving, a person for instance, probably looks like a predator. Pretty soon, they will start to regard you as a source of food. Right now they may not be very interested in food; when they start to act hungry, you'll know they're feeling healthy.

Thank you. That is exactly how they are acting.

Sorry. I forgot the drip acclimation thing. There is a description of it in our blog section, but you may have to go through several pages to find it. Basically, you put the new fish and their water into a clean bucket then slowly drip aquarium water into it. Regular plastic buckets hold about 2.5 gallons, and you take about an hour to drip in a gallon or two. The dripper is just a piece of air hose with a valve on the end; you start a syphon and adjust the water flow with the valve. I've lost fish introduced by the old floating bag method but have never lost one using the drip method. Check the blog for more details.

I also use the drip acclimation method.

And, like John, I've never lost one using it.

I use it CONSTANTLY, because I move a lot of fish around to different tanks, freeing up room, making more room for growing fry and getting them ready to ship/sell to the local fish store.

It's worth finding the blog.