No Luck with Kissing Fish

Question
Hello, I have had my 12-gallon tank set up for about a year now.  I have two glowfish and 2 neon tetras. I have the Eclipse aquarium with the biowheel filter system, I recently checked my water levels and they were all right on with the dip stick system. I change my water every 3-4 weeks and do about half of it at a time. I recently bought two kissing fish (groumis? - I'm not sure on the spelling) and they aren't doing very well.  The original two have died and both have been replaced. Do you have any suggestions on keeping them alive?  My heater keeps my tank at about 68-70 and I feed pellet/crumbles once a day.  Thanks

Answer
Hi Ashley;

Your tank is just too low in temperature and too small I'm afraid. They also need a different diet. To properly set a tank for kissing gouramis get a tank of at least 30 gallons, heat it to 78f, and feed live food such as brine shrimp and worms. Also feed sliced cucumber, green beans, shredded carrots, spirulina algae and romaine lettuce several times a week. They also enjoy nibbling on live plants. It's a good natural source of food. Leave at least one area of the tank with algae intact so they can graze on it. Kissers grow to be about 6 inches long in most aquariums but grow to be a foot long in the wild. Here are some profile pages with more info about them;

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/kissinggourami.htm

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile60.html

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/gourami/kissing.php

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins