rhapsody32
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2019
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Hi everyone,
Maybe you can help a beginner with some questions on breeding honey gouramis.
The backstory: I bought two honeys a few months ago and kept them in a 40l with some ghost shrimp (their population has exploded quite a bit!). I did not have much time watching my fish and if I had, I probably would have picked up on what was going on earlier. I thought that the difference in colour (one is orange, the other yellow) was mainly due to the orange one being more dominant and both being males. One day I noticed that the yellow honey (which turned out to be the female) was only hiding and had quite a damaged fin - the male had built a bubble nest with tiny fry and was defending it viciously. This is where I probably made a mistake, I put the male into my quarantine tank, thinking that the fry would not survive anyway.
At the moment, the male lives in the quarantine tank (it is 40l as well and I decorated it with some live plants and moss) and the female is doing well in my main tank. Her fins are also growing back very nicely.
I have been wondering if you think it would be possible to raise some fry with the current set-up. I do not have space for another 40l tank so the male and female would have to live together again without attempting to breed. Can I control breeding in the species by lowering the water temperature (when they bred, water temperature was quite high, 27°C, I dropped it now to 24°C and might even be able to go lower than that) or will the male constantly build a bubble nest and try breeding? Or, alternatively, what is the smallest tank size that I can use to raise the fry? If I find space for a smaller tank I might be able to keep the male and female separately.
Thanks a lot, I know breeding gouramis is not easy, but I would like to give it a try.
Maybe you can help a beginner with some questions on breeding honey gouramis.
The backstory: I bought two honeys a few months ago and kept them in a 40l with some ghost shrimp (their population has exploded quite a bit!). I did not have much time watching my fish and if I had, I probably would have picked up on what was going on earlier. I thought that the difference in colour (one is orange, the other yellow) was mainly due to the orange one being more dominant and both being males. One day I noticed that the yellow honey (which turned out to be the female) was only hiding and had quite a damaged fin - the male had built a bubble nest with tiny fry and was defending it viciously. This is where I probably made a mistake, I put the male into my quarantine tank, thinking that the fry would not survive anyway.
At the moment, the male lives in the quarantine tank (it is 40l as well and I decorated it with some live plants and moss) and the female is doing well in my main tank. Her fins are also growing back very nicely.
I have been wondering if you think it would be possible to raise some fry with the current set-up. I do not have space for another 40l tank so the male and female would have to live together again without attempting to breed. Can I control breeding in the species by lowering the water temperature (when they bred, water temperature was quite high, 27°C, I dropped it now to 24°C and might even be able to go lower than that) or will the male constantly build a bubble nest and try breeding? Or, alternatively, what is the smallest tank size that I can use to raise the fry? If I find space for a smaller tank I might be able to keep the male and female separately.
Thanks a lot, I know breeding gouramis is not easy, but I would like to give it a try.