GIANT gouramis
- Thread starter BIGgourami
- Start date
Ok. Sorry for the delay. I finally got a semi-decent pic of my RTGG. He is about 15 years old now and 14" . The flash sort of washed him out a little bit but his body is the same redness as the fins and the head is much more blue. I have no question that he is some sort of RTGG, just have never seen one like this before. What you think?
I have never seen that coloration in a Giant gourami and i have looked at thousands of photos. Looks like a cross of Osphronemus goramy and Laticlavius because of the gray/blue face but not really sure. Very beautiful fish though.....
Thanks for the compliment. I know what you mean. I , too scoured thousands of pictures over the years with nothing even close. What throws me off is the red body. One would think that a hybrid of O. Goramy and O. Laticlavius would have more of a grayish body since both are predominately gray. Just don't know. I will try for a better picture that shows his color better, because he really is brick red over his whole body and fins. Maybe no flash next time...
14" @ 15 years old, hes kind of a slow grower, my Big guy is 26-27 @ 6 years old. Have you ever noticed him letting bubbles out from his mouth(not just a few) after taking a breath? Just curious about something i have been researching.
Please, it's difficult to make out the color due to the flash but thanks for the picture.Flying Fox;4585888; said:
It does look very odd, but to me it's the shape that is weird. The head it very large in proportion to the body, yes gg do have big heads but it looks as if it could have been stunted at some point which is even weirder as they do not 'grow to a tank' they just grow. Possibly undernourished when young but again I've seen fish in an LFS for ages and kept small on purpose and then they come home and bang they just start to grow.
Thanks for sharing the image, I can't see the point on the pec fins, they look ok, maybe it's the angle?.
Piggy67 - You have a RTGG that is 26-27"? I thought your gourami was an O. Goramy which would be much a bigger fish, right? Once he reached 11"-12", his growth rate really slowed down. He hasn't grown in the last 5 years or so. Maybe age is catching up to him, who knows. It certainly has not been for lack of food or space. He has been in a 150gal for 14 years, pretty much by himself (does not play well with others). Yes about the bubbles. Sometimes he will randomly let out air wherever he is and swim to the top to replenish. He has been doing this as far back as I can remember. Not often, but enough not to be a surprise.
Yanbbrox- I will try to get a better pic this weekend. Can't really say about head to body ratio, but now that you mentioned it , does seem odd. I have had him since he was 3"-4". Badly beat up, but once he got some pounds on , he was doing the beating up (pay-back I guess). He stayed in a 60 gal for a nano second before going to the 150gl where he is now. He grew very quickly to 12" and then everything came to a screeching halt, growth-wise. He's always been healthy and has a bottomless stomach. I am assuming that he is not going to get any bigger. Maybe he is something else and not a RTGG and that is as big as they get. Don't know. The shape of his pectorals are as you see them. They grew curved straight up, so there is very little fin to swim with. Same on both sides. All the other fins grew back normal but those. I am just glad I was able to get him out of that green terror tank in the LFS. He would have died if he stayed in there much longer.
Yanbbrox- I will try to get a better pic this weekend. Can't really say about head to body ratio, but now that you mentioned it , does seem odd. I have had him since he was 3"-4". Badly beat up, but once he got some pounds on , he was doing the beating up (pay-back I guess). He stayed in a 60 gal for a nano second before going to the 150gl where he is now. He grew very quickly to 12" and then everything came to a screeching halt, growth-wise. He's always been healthy and has a bottomless stomach. I am assuming that he is not going to get any bigger. Maybe he is something else and not a RTGG and that is as big as they get. Don't know. The shape of his pectorals are as you see them. They grew curved straight up, so there is very little fin to swim with. Same on both sides. All the other fins grew back normal but those. I am just glad I was able to get him out of that green terror tank in the LFS. He would have died if he stayed in there much longer.