Fry Growth Rate?

[Ragtatter]

I've made my first attempt to breed my male and female Pearl Gourami, and this morning I was rewarded with a tankful of about 100 frantically swimming fry. I've separated the parents out, are feeding them a fry-food I've used successfully with baby zebra danios, etc.

Anyway, since I've never raised any sort of gourami from fry before, can anyone tell me about what rate they'll grow at? I'd like to trade them in to my LFS when they're about 1"-2", and I'm just curious as to about how long that'll take.

 

[Majjie]

Sorry Ragtagger, can't help at all there ... I've only ever kept pearls in community tanks, never bred them. I don't like seeing posts without a reply, though .... looks as if we're all ignoring you, when in fact we just don't know the answer to the question.

Sylvia's the gourami expert on TFF ... but she hasn't been around for a while .....

 

[Ragtatter]

Sorry Ragtagger

*throws self on the floor and throws a tantrum* My name's Ragtatter, not Ragtagger!

Anyway though, no big deal if nobody knows. Hey, in a few weeks/months I'll know, and then I can share it with everybody.




(Seriously, though. What was the Ragtagger thing all about? I mean, you made it in bold and everything. I feel like there's a joke that I'm missing.)

 

[poopsydrew]

Hi,

Congrats on the spawn. I have spawned pearls and the growth rates are very fast. However, you will want to wait at least 3 months before trading or selling them so theyre labryinth organ can develop properly. Make sure to keep the tank tightly covered as the fry are sensitive to cool drafts. They should be well over 1.5" at 3 months of age.

The fry will need plenty of infusoria for the first couple days to a week. They cant take BBS until about a week of age so make sure you have plenty of infusoria in there. Also, are you sure there are only 100, as this is quite a small spawn. Keep the tank very clean, especially the bottom as the "liqui fry" polltues the tank very quickly.

Drew

 

[Ragtatter]

Thank you for the information.


As for there only being 100, I should make a little disclaimer that I'm horrible at estimating numbers. Also I don't think all of them had hatched yet when I first posted, because the number in the tank seems to have tripled since then, and I just now took the lid that the bubblenest was under out.

As for water changes, I've been doing small ones (7.5%) daily

It's great to know that I'll only need to wait 3 months until they're big enough to go to new homes--I was guessing that it was going to maybe take twice that long. Thanks again for letting me know, I really appreciate it.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Ragtatter

You didn't say what kind of fry food you are using, but I never had luck raising gourami fry until I learned about growing infusoria by putting a lettuce leaf in a jar of water and keeping it on the window sill. By adding a little of the green water each feeding, and siphoning old water from the bottom during water changes, I was finally able to raise them.

Gouramis are not easy fry to raise, but it's wonderful to watch them develop and grow.

 

[Majjie]

Sorry Ragtagger

*throws self on the floor and throws a tantrum* My name's Ragtatter, not Ragtagger!

Anyway though, no big deal if nobody knows. Hey, in a few weeks/months I'll know, and then I can share it with everybody.




(Seriously, though. What was the Ragtagger thing all about? I mean, you made it in bold and everything. I feel like there's a joke that I'm missing.)

Sorry (again!) Ragtatter ... just a senior moment on my part. I always put people's names in bold ... there was no sinister motive on my part. You can get up off the floor now
(Although ... I like the name Ragtagger ....!)