Honey Sunset Gourami

[Gordon88]

Hi
I have 3 honey sunset gouramis, (2 female and 1 male), one of the females however i have just added and is still only young and not sexually mature, but the other two are.
I was just wondering though with the other two it seems to me that the male wants to mate as he has the black markings on him and is always very lively round the female, however the female always chases him off.

Is this because the male wants to mate and the female doesn't?

They are in a 190L tank at the mo with two keyhole cichlids, i know that to breed them succesfully i would need to transfer them to their own tank. I was just wondering though if i did transfer them to their own tank would the female want to mate then or would she still try and chase him away??

Thanks

 

[Gordon88]

anyone help?
Thanks

 

[sylvia]

Male gouramies (somewhat liek humans lol) are always up for mating provided they are sexualy mature and in good condition. Females, hwoever, will only readily spawn if they are gravid (full of eggs), as well as healthy. because making eggs requires extra energy and, in the wild, the fish have to make sure their energy is worth spending in this way, females will only become gravid when conditions are ideal (good water quality is a must but a stress-free environment and lots of plants and a gentle current are also essential) and when there's lots of food around (in captivity 'good food' translates to live foods such as bloodworm, blackworm, brine shrimp, daphnia etc, frozen equivalents and the occasional veggie supplement). If you seperate the male (put him in the breeding tank) and then condition the female in the main tank with live/frozen foods, then you can start raising the temp. in both tanks a bit and, when the female starts looking quite fat, if you add her to the male's breeding tank he should start building a nest and they may spawn. It does sometimes take several tries and there are various other ways of encouraging them to breed but this is the main gist of it I think I replied to a thread a while back with quite a detailed description of the procedure that works for me... I'll see if I can retrieve it for you

Here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=137719&hl= Note that it's not all about honeys but both dwarfs and honeys have similar requirements and go through much the same breeding behaviours (I think I also said this in that thread).