Pearl gouramies looking a bit odd.

[plesner]

Hi,

A friend of mine bought a group of pearl gouramies in what is probably the best place to buy fish in Copenhagen. According to the shop they’re bred in Denmark. When she came home with them and studied them in their tank, she thought that they did look somewhat odd. Though they look nowhere as awful as balloon pearl gouramies, they do look a bit short and high-bodied and the fins are quite extreme (especially in the males) for fish which sizewise shouldn’t quite be adults yet.

 

What is your opinion?

 

 

 

 

 

TIA,

Plesner

[plesner]

I just received a picture of yet another one of the pearl gouramies. Though it’s fairly small in this picture, it does look a lot worse than the other ones.

 

[torso]

they look odd. here some pics of wild caught

http://www.igl-home.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6176

it’s a pity that selection leeds to these forms.

on the IGL-website I’ve read a remark: good news is, that this species resists all tentatives to breed colour forms. and now this

http://www.aquariumglaser.de/de/archiv.php?news_id=1288

cheers Charles

[helsch]

Hi, –

those are actually my fish, – and thanks plesner for uploading.

I can confirm that the fish are odd indeed, – and in fact,  I am not in doubt any longer, – they are simply not ‘natural’, they have been bred to look like this, – with a strong emphasis on lots of sparkling colours and extended fins, – short bodies.

It seems in this particular batch some of them are ‘worse’ than others, – some of them may look slightly as the normal ones. But theres one ‘freak’ fish, looking very little like a normal gurami in fact.

I just had to ask my fellow hobbyists if this could really be true, I had never expected this to happen when one went to an ordinary shop and wanted to buy ordinary pearl guramies.

I will most likely return them to the shop. Although in many ways they are pretty striking beatiful I hate the idea of having fish like that in my tank.

Thanks for any reply which can contribute to solving or understanding this problem

[helsch]

 sorry I dont seem to be able to put the photos right, – but heres just a few more better pictures. The large pearl in the back is my ‘old’ normal one

[Matt]

Short-bodied pearl gouramis, whatever next? 

[oaken]

I recently saw short bodied Ctenopoma acutirostre. The funny thing is they go for a higher price than the normal ones. Apparently “short body fish” seems to be a big trend among “monster” fishkeepers. 

[helsch]

With these ‘pearls’ the thing is as plesner wrote – they look totally matured and fins and colours are as it would be in a very matured normal fish, but bodywise they look like ‘teenagers’ if anything.

[Author]

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