Sparkling Gourami Fry!

[DevUK]

Wow. I really wasn't expecting this! I have a tank with some fancy guppies, a few dwarf platties, quite a few coffee bean rasbora (maculatus) and some pygmy corries (habrosus). I aslo have at least 3 (was 6, only count 3 now) sparkling gouramis.

Recently they have been croaking off and on. It shocked me at first before I realised what the noise was I didn't think anything of it. Anyhow, I caught one of the guppies giving birth so managed to get her into a breeding net. I only rescued 4 fry, though I've seen one hiding out in the plants (very heavily planted tank). Several days later I noticed the gouramis getting very aggressive around the breeding net. I figured they were eyeing up the fry in the net and chasing the others away from their potential meal.

I then noticed some more fry hiding between the net and the glass. They were a lot smaller than the guppy fry so I was wondering what they were. Today I saw a lot more fry! I also sat and watched one of the gouramis chasing other fish away from where the fry were hiding! So I have a good group of fry and a defensive mum! My fingers are crossed!

Anyhow, pics:

First small group of 7 or 8 I saw:

Large clutch I found, all clinging onto some a Hydrocotyle leaf:

Mum on the look out:

I'm very pleased

 

[Biulu]

Congratulations! I understand they are not the easiest gouramis to keep, so getting fry is a major success! Keep us posted!

 

[DevUK]

Thanks After figuring this out I've read that you can induce breeding by dropping the water level and providing plenty of places to build bubble nests. I think the tank is perfect for this. Lots of plant cover including large hydrocotyle leaves on the surface, and I recently converted it to open top, so there is some evapouration, though not much.

Here's a pic of one of the potential parents taken in May, not long after I got them:

 

[DevUK]

A little concerned about how to rear these guys, as they are so small. Infusoria seems to be the choice food, but I need to rear some, some how. Reading up on it it's relatively straight forwards but time is of the essence.

I do have several powdered fry foods (hikari first bites seems to be the finest I have). I've been mixing some with water and blowing it in the direction of the fry with a syringe. I've seen one of them pecking away at the particles so hopefully it's small enough for them...

 

[Mikaila31]

Congrats! I'm hoping mine will eventually breed as well. And I know what you mean by the sound. I thought something was wrong with my filter .

 

[Biulu]

You should have infusoria in your tank with all those plants and moss. Try BBS, easy to do and very much appreciated by the fry. Have a look at this link on how to cultivate them: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=1861239

I personally use a plastic soda bottle and an airstone only.

 

[tangokitty]

Good job with the Fry!! Don't forget to post more pictures!

 

[Gill]

You Lucky Git mate,
On the feeding side - you have th daphnia tank, just chuck in the tiniest ones, thats what i use for my fighter fry.

 

[DevUK]

Brewing up some BBS. Forgot about the hatchery kit I have in the cupboard. Should be ready this eve Will also take a look in the daphnia tank and see what I can catch

 

[Biulu]

This is what Sylvia used to write on feeding pearl gouramis, holds true for basically all gourami species:

Anyway, with the fry free-swimming, it's time to remove the male and start feeding. This is where it's important that you've prepaired some kind of miniscule live food. I tend to use microworms but baby brine shrimp or vinegar eels are good too. The real issue here is that you must eb prepaired a good few weeks before spawning (less with the shrimp) or your fry could starve. in fact, at the very beginning, many fry can't even take these large foods and need infusoria (these are easy to culture). You can try liquid egg-layer foods of the commercialy sold type and follow the instructions - these actualy serve as good infusoria-food themselves so you can use it to culture them. As the fry grow they'll be able to take larger and larger foods- train them onto powdered flake (but feed them some live things also) as soon as possible. This'll make things easier both for you and their future owners but, mroe importantly, live foods are messier than flake.

Which is something else I should add - by now you'll filled the tank right to the top if it wasn't full already and you'll have to start doing some partial water changes. What I do is syphon as I would any ordinary tank but all of the water goes into a white (or light-colored) bucket - this way you can see the fry you've sucked up (and you almost inevitably will suck some up ) and return them safely to the tank. Make sure the water you use to replace that which you've removed has the same chemistry - including temp. - or you risk killing all the fry.

That's basicaly it, I think . For info. on live foods, check out the pinned topics in the betta section - they have some stuff on culturing foods. Also, search this forum for more gourami breeding threads - I know there are quite a few - as well as the betta section seeing as bettas are just another gourami species and are pretty much the same to breed (+ jars).

Have fun

 

[faewyn]

Just wanted to know how you went raising the fry? I know this was 7 years ago.. Have you bred them since?