Helostoma Temmincki - Kissing Gourami - Breeding?

[jayjay]

my 2 helostoma temmincki which i've had for a few years now are reaching 5 inches and are exibiting mating behaviour but the female doesn't release any eggs....

is this because she not mature enough yet?

this twist together at the top of the tank and are always swimming round together

the behaviour happens mainly in the evening and has been going on for months now.

there both in perfect health and are always hungry.

they match everything i've read about the species breeding but the femal doesn't preoduce any eggs what can i do to "help" the process along?

cheers for any help in advance

 

[jayjay]

can anyone help me??

 

[vancouver]

I've never heard of someone in the hobby breeding kissers.. They will grow quite large, so it might be possible they aren't mature (just a guess)...

I really don't know.. cool fish though

 

[sylvia]

Have you got a bubblenest? I'm asking because I've seen a lot of stuff about kissers breeding with bubblenests but, as far as I've seen, they don't - they just release the eggs.

Anyway, are you certain you have a female? Sexing kissers isn't possible so it may well be that you don't actualy have a female - are they actualy embracing?

If so, I would think that you do have a female as I can't imagine any self-respecting male kisser allowing his male tankmate to take advantage of him in this way

Assuming you do have a female, she may well simply not be mature yet. Does she look plump/gravid? Maybe you need to condition them a little. If possible, get another tank and seperate them. Condition both on live/frozen foods (plus lots of veggies for kissers) and raise the tank's temp. 80 deg F or so should usualy trigger breeding behaviour in fish that are in breeding condition.

Water changes also help!

 

[jayjay]

no they don't have a bubblenest and from what i've read they don't make one?

they do embrace, they embrace the same as betta's i've seen breeding should they embrace like this......?

the one is getting quite wide now more so than the other one. so hopefully she does have eggs.

i don't think there's anyway i could get a tank to condition them in atm so i'll hope they do it on their own.

when they embrace which they spend alot of time doing! most of the day they will swim together never spliting up and every 20 minutes or so they will embrace and then they embrace more and more often for about 30 minutes then they wait other 20 minutes. they embrace most in the evening and even are embraced for long enough for them to drift into the filter and it pushes them to one end of the tank and after about 2o seconds they let go of each other.

they don't seem to take live food only flake and other prepared foods......

i do 25% changes a week on their tank.

 

[sylvia]

No, they shouldn't build a nest and ,yes, they do embrace.

It's weird that they won't take live foods. They normaly love them. The only thing I can suggest as far as food goes is to vary their diet as much as possible and make sure there's plenty of veggies in the diet. Again, increasing the temp. helps to encourage breeding.

Considering that they sound exactly as if they've been trying to spawn, however, perhaps they have been releasing eggs but you haven't seen them. How strong is the flow from your filter? Is there any chance the eggs have been sucked up or pushed down by the current?

You see, normaly, the eggs float to the surface. If you have floating plants, check under the leaves - perhaps you only missed them because their hidden.

Having said that, the number of eggs a female can release is absolutely huge - up to 10000 eggs isn't particularly unusual. This is because, unlike bubblenesting gouramies, the parents don't take care of the young. The father won't guard or clean them. As such, the only reason any fry survive in the wild is that there are so many of them.

Actualy, that raises another point - if you were looking seriously to breed this fish, you'd have to remove the adults after spawning as they'll readily eat the eggs and fry. Perhaps, even, this may be why they aren't interested in other live foods you've offered them.

 

[jayjay]

there's a strong current but it goes into the glass so it sort of slows it down alot.

the temperature in the tank i think is around 29'c (can't find degrees symbol....)after being raised a few weeks ago.

i don't know why they don't take live food they prefer algea, veggies and they love flake....

there are no floating plants in there any more; they all got eaten.

well you could be right on them eating their eggs but i've never seen any and people in my house spend alot of time watching the fish especaily this tank which is the main tank in the house. the other are in my room so i keep a close eye on them more but i check the main tank for at least half an hour a day(more when cleaning it of course): check to see everyone is eating, count them all, check temp. check fish incase of ingurys or disease.

so i doubt i've missed them they do everything accept release eggs that i've seen. i check all plants in the corners that are heavliy planted to the top of the tank in the corners but there's nothing there.

cheers for all your advice so far