Breeding Chocolate Gourami

[Katchan]

I post last week about one of my chocolate gourami's being overly aggressive and killing two others I think I know why now I'm pretty sure its a male, and I'm also pretty sure he's gone and gotten his tank mate knocked up

My Observations -

via descriptions obtained from several sources, the aggressor is male and the remaining other is female.

He is moving freely about the tank and has a very red patch around his lower body and anal fin, while the female is tending to stay in a couple of places, and not moving much.

She is not eating - mouth brooding?

Both fish are otherwise seeming very healthy, nice relaxed finage, no sign of clamping - all the chocolates bar the surviving male had very clamped fins during his aggressive period, his were moderatly clamped.


I have moved her into my fry tank and put her in a breeding net incase she is pregnant.

If anyone else can give me their thoughts and or experience please do

also I have found references for anwhere between 7 and 21 days (14 being most common) for the time she mouthbroods for - any help here appreciated (sp?) as well.

Katchan

 

[sylvia]

If she isn't eating but looks healthy, it is very likely she is mouth-brooding (especialy considering the behaviour you described). I realy don't think keeping her in a net breeder is a good idea. Especialy with a mouth-brooding chocolate gourami - she could end up very stressed. Why don't you just leave her in the breeding tank? Are there other fish there? I suggest you try to move them somewhere and leave the gourami in the tank alone. As for how long she would be brooding for - I would say about 2 weeks but it varies greatly depending on condition, temperature etc. BTW, even if the fish have now settled down, you should still add to the number so you have at least 6, 8 prefferably, as they do better in a group and it is necessary, to keep aggression down, to keep them as a large number. Once breeding time comes round again, BTW, youwill have the male being aggressive again. Exposing the small number of other fish to this regular stress may result in serious problems. By adding even mroe, you'll be splitting the aggression across several individuals and thus reducing the stress on any particular one.

 

[Katchan]

Thanks sylvia, we are currently in the middle of trying to track down some chocolate gourami, not the easiest thing here last time it took nearly a month with lots of ringing different fish stores, doing it more sedatly this time as just have 3 stores (including the one we got the original choc's from) looking out for when they can get them.

the tank we have the female in currently has swordtail fry in there (less than a week old) which is why I opted for the breeding net.

Katchan