Realpedro
New Member
OK, so this week I decided to have my first go at breeding honey gouramis. Took a while, but I got to the point where there was a bubble nest with a small batch of fertilized eggs, at which point I removed the female. This was Weds or Thursday. After this, everything went downhill and I'm trying to salvage what I can.
So my first mistake was to slightly rearrange the breeding tank with the male still in it. His nest was directly above a small sponge filter (which I had turned off to still the surface). I figured I might want to turn that on later, so I gently moved it across the tank away from the eggs. The male was incensed. He smashed the nest, made another bubble nest over the sponge filter I had moved and ferried the eggs across the tank into the new nest. He really liked the eggs above the filter.
A few hours after that I checked on him again and he was stuck in the plastic nozzle of the sponge filter. Dead. I'm guessing an egg fell from the nest into the top of air nozzle and he wedged himself in there trying to retrieve it. Now at first I wasn't sure if he was dead so I tried to release him. In trying to release him I clumsily smashed the nest and sent eggs throughout the tank. One of my lowest moments in fish (so far). So I tried gathering up the eggs by sucking them up using a bit air hose. I deposited them in a glass cup that I floated in the breeding tank. About ten or so hatched. That was Friday. I thought they were all dead, but this morning (Saturday), several were swimming around a bit.
I have some infusoria (I think), and I used a dropper to put a few drops of the cloudy infusoria water near the fry. Can't tell if they are eating it or not, but wriggling is involved. I also noticed a few fry had hatched out of eggs free floating in the tank.
So my main questions are:
1. How do I know if my fish are eating infusoria, or if my infusoria is nutritious enough. I'm a super noob at this.
2. Should I collect all the fry from the tank into the little glass cup to concentrate them and make them easier to feed?
3. Or, should I pour out the ten or so fry in the cup into the tank (10 gallons) to avoid cramping them in a small dirty space?
4. Do these fry have any realistic chance of survival? I'm still a bit down about losing the male and smashing the nest, and so I've waxed a bit pessimistic.
Thanks in advance.
So my first mistake was to slightly rearrange the breeding tank with the male still in it. His nest was directly above a small sponge filter (which I had turned off to still the surface). I figured I might want to turn that on later, so I gently moved it across the tank away from the eggs. The male was incensed. He smashed the nest, made another bubble nest over the sponge filter I had moved and ferried the eggs across the tank into the new nest. He really liked the eggs above the filter.
A few hours after that I checked on him again and he was stuck in the plastic nozzle of the sponge filter. Dead. I'm guessing an egg fell from the nest into the top of air nozzle and he wedged himself in there trying to retrieve it. Now at first I wasn't sure if he was dead so I tried to release him. In trying to release him I clumsily smashed the nest and sent eggs throughout the tank. One of my lowest moments in fish (so far). So I tried gathering up the eggs by sucking them up using a bit air hose. I deposited them in a glass cup that I floated in the breeding tank. About ten or so hatched. That was Friday. I thought they were all dead, but this morning (Saturday), several were swimming around a bit.
I have some infusoria (I think), and I used a dropper to put a few drops of the cloudy infusoria water near the fry. Can't tell if they are eating it or not, but wriggling is involved. I also noticed a few fry had hatched out of eggs free floating in the tank.
So my main questions are:
1. How do I know if my fish are eating infusoria, or if my infusoria is nutritious enough. I'm a super noob at this.
2. Should I collect all the fry from the tank into the little glass cup to concentrate them and make them easier to feed?
3. Or, should I pour out the ten or so fry in the cup into the tank (10 gallons) to avoid cramping them in a small dirty space?
4. Do these fry have any realistic chance of survival? I'm still a bit down about losing the male and smashing the nest, and so I've waxed a bit pessimistic.
Thanks in advance.
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