Honey Gourami breeding gone wrong - Need some basic advice

[Realpedro]

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.

 

[CassCats]

Lower the tank water to just a couple inches deep, to give them easier access to air for their tiny size.
Infusoria is fine for a couple days to a week, then start feeding them live baby brine shrimp. Ive had way better luck with gourami fry once they are large enough to take baby brine shrimp. I tried just powdered fry foods before and wasn't as good with the gourami fry ive found. They thrive best on lives. (Vinegar eels would be another really good one to use instead)
These are relatively easy to raise, just tedious. Keep a routine going. Every 2 days hatch a new batch. Store in fridge after they hatch. If you want more questions how to raise these, I can answer them.

Daily large water changes, be sure the water is the same temperature and parameters, stability is very important with fry but so is fresh clean water.

Hang in there. Good, or bad, keep at it.

 

[Realpedro]

Lower the tank water to just a couple inches deep, to give them easier access to air for their tiny size.
Infusoria is fine for a couple days to a week, then start feeding them live baby brine shrimp.
These are relatively easy to raise, just tedious. Keep a routine going. Every 2 days hatch a new batch. Store in fridge after they hatch. If you want more questions how to raise these, I can answer them.

Daily large water changes, be sure the water is the same temperature and parameters, stability is very important with fry but so is fresh clean water.

Hang in there. Good, or bad, keep at it.

Thanks.

I did a largish water change today, because the tank is a little messy because I had been stuffing the adult gouramis with all kinds of food. So I'm worried about the balance of keeping it clean vs not disturbing stuff. Also, I heard humidity above the water surface is important, and that's easier for me to maintain if I keep the water level higher. So my gut trusts your advice that lower water is better, but I'm a little nervous about it.

Lol. I got into fish keeping because I thought it would be a nice calm pastime, but these little fry have me a bit stressed out. My wife is having a good-natured laugh at me.

Also, I usually try to feed all my fish and animals a variety of foods. Is there anything else I can feed these little fellas? Egg yolk or commercial fry foods? The fry are just so tiny.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I'm sorry to hear about your male, and that it's been rough! Sometimes, horrible things just happen, that sounds like an accident you couldn't have prevented, no one would expect that. I don't know anything about gourami breeding, just wanted to share my condolences and wish you luck with the fry, hope that you keep us updated.

 

[CassCats]

You could try hikari first bites but honestly I've found they don't thrive as well as the live fry foods.

Keep a firm lid, even with lower tank levels. You can use seran wrap if needed as well to do this. Humidity is very important with labyrinth fish fry. So a lid is important, to keep Humidity good. But fry are super tiny and having a shorter distance to the surface helps them and also makes them closer to food as well.