Mating Honeys?

[kniesh]

Hi I recently moved 2 honey gouramis from my community tank into their own smaller tank. I didn't know the sexes of them but they got on well. Now it would appear to be male an female, one has turned really dark black on his tail an body an the other seems a bit paler.

The darker one has built a bubble nest now and and they seem to be behaving quite strange. The male is chasing the female around the tank when he sees her, then every now an again they meet up by the nest and curl around each other for a while before the female swims off.

Is this mating behaviour? Thx in advance.

 

[sylvia]

Yes. The 'curling' you are describing will happen under a bubblenest. They are spawning. The female releases eggs which the male fertilises. he then collects any that aren't in the nest and puts them back in an guards the nest, cleaning the eggs and remove infertile ones regularly. It only takes 1-2 days for the fry to hatch and they very quickly become free-swimming. You need, BTW, to remove the female if you plan to raise fry and you need to remove the male as soon as the fry become free-swimming as well. Feed the fry on newly hatched baby brine shrimp or microworms though they probably will need infusoria or a comemrcial egg-layer liquid food at first. You'll need to start feeding the liquid food in advance if you plan to use it so buy it now. If your tank is ehavily planted, infusoria/liquid foods may not be as important and some fry should be able to find enough food to survive.

 

[kniesh]

Thx for the reply, They have now layed all the eggs (what a spectacle btw) I have removed the female back to my livebearer tank where they came from and I will remove the male once they become free swimming. I have liquid fry food here from when I was breeding Kribs, is this just going to be the same, adding it to the water now before they hatch and just keep adding 3 times a day once they become free swimming.

The tank is about 12 gallons I think and I have a good amount of fake plants. What does this mean in terms of feeding?

Thx again and if they hatch successfully I will post pictures.

 

[sylvia]

Yes, treat them like the kribs. The only difference is that gouramies grow quicker and you'll need to start feeding them something a little larger within 5 or so days (more/less depending on temp. and feeding schedule).

Don't over-feed if you aren't confident making water changes (I syphon using a white bucket - that way you can see any fry you accidentaly take out and put them back in the tank!). On the other hand, the more often you can feed them (though only small amounts), the better. Keep in mind that gourami fry are cannibalistic and the larger will happily eat the smaller if there isn't enough food, often enough.

Unfortunately, fake plants don't usualy support infusoria though they might support algae - which in turn supports infusoria.

For the larger food I mentioned, you'll either need to hatch some brine shrimp (you need to start getting ready for all this now) or get a microworm culture or vinegar eels going. I think there is lots of info. on fry foods appropriate for gouramies in the Betta forum's pinned articles section (Bettas are gouramies as well). If you cannot get hold of this, liquid livebearer apparently work for older egg-layer fry (though I've never tried it). I have tried using powdered flake and this can work but you won't get as many fry as if you feed live foods.

 

[kniesh]

Thx alot for the help, I will keep u posted.

Btw they have all started hatching now so I have removed the male back.

 

[TheRedDarren]

gratz m8

Could you tell if the female has different shaped fins to the male (dorsal or anal). I have 6 honeys atm and would like to start breeding them, although I cant be sure which ones are male and female apart from the obvious colour differences, just want to be 100% sure, thanks.

 

[TheRedDarren]

also, could you give me your water parameters too? thanks in advance.

 

[Shadow_Africa]

Congrad's on the fry
My male Pearl is building his first bubble nest in his new home. Its interesting, it will be my first batch of fry. If only my Kribs would breed. But they chase each other

One question I have is do you need to take the fry out. Im looking for more tanks but right now i only have the 55 gallon planted community tank?
Sorry about the hitch-hiking

 

[sylvia]

It would be pretty impossible to take the fry out They are tiny. They are also very sensitive to changes in water chemistry and temperature and cannot be moved into an uncycled tank so you need to have prepaired the other tank at least a few weeks in advance and fishless cycled it.

Also, the male gourami takes care of the fry right up until they are free-swimming. Removing them before this point will result in very high mortality rates so you should wait until afterwards - but then it's very difficult like I've already said.

The easiest thing to do is set up a breeding tank and mvoe your male and female into it. Then the fry are in a seperate tank when they hatch already and, once the male has been removed, can be cared for seperately. Don't worry, once gouramies start breeding, they'll spawn quite regularly so I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to try this out.

Meanwhile, I wouldn't move the fry - you are unlikely to get many survivors out of this and they probably stand a better chance surviving int eh community (provided they don't get eaten) than if they are moved into an uncycled tank with different parameters.