gourami

Question
I just moved my fairly active blue(opaline) gourami to a 110 gallon with 2 hangover filters-300 gal/hr- from a 20 gallon, where he's been for a little over a month. This was about 2 days ago now. All he does now is hide in a small cave until feeding time and then he comes out and gets food. Other than that, he hides in his small cave until a piece of driftwood. Now, there is no light in the new aquarium(I'm waiting for a bulb to be delivered) but I dont know if that has any affect. Do you know what could be the problem?

Answer
Hi Jarrod,

It's just an adjustment period.  It's actually a good thing to keep the lights off for a period of time to let the fish adjust to the new environment.  Eventually once he figures out he's in a new, larger home and he's safe he'll be fine.  Just keep an eye on him.  Sometimes labyrinth fish have a hard time in larger tanks because they don't get enough oxygen.  I had a betta and a gourami die in my 120 g because they just couldn't make it to the surface as fast or as often as they did in my 55 g.

Good luck : ) April M.