Oh dear, Gourami trying to mate

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Jan Cavalieri

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I have at least two male blue Gourami trying to mate with a single female. I'm not going to intentionally keep the offspring because of their size - I just bought a larger tank because we had 3 large gourami live with the last litter and within a month were nearly the size of their parents (5-8 inches) I don't have the space or patience to do this again.. I read somewhere that male Gourami build nests of eggs (nothing that I can see but then we do a 70% water change weekly). Then forcibly make the female lay eggs in their nest and make her go away. They kill her if she refuses to release her eggs. About 2 weeks ago I had an unexplained death of a Gourami now I have two (what look like males) chasing around a single young female (at least I think it's a female - they are all the same species and so it's hard to tell and each sex looks similar)

Will I be an evil person if I just let nature take it's course with the babies? Also will they kill her if we keep taking their invisible nests away so should we go ahead and stop cleaning for a couple of weeks and let the males build their nests until she delivers? What really upsets me is that all the large Gourami are from mistakes made from the same company - in each case I was ordering a dwarf Gourami and they substituted wit the large gourami for my 29 gallon tank - way to small for a fish that size. I bought a 50 gallon acrylic tank and stand which was pricey but i don't want to have to move up to a 75 gallon for what would be a $5 fish that I don't even like.
 
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I have at least two male blue Gourami trying to mate with a single female. I'm not going to intentionally keep the offspring because of their size - I just bought a larger tank because we had 3 large gourami live with the last litter and within a month were nearly the size of their parents (5-8 inches) I don't have the space or patience to do this again.. I read somewhere that male Gourami build nests of eggs (nothing that I can see but then we do a 70% water change weekly). Then forcibly make the female lay eggs in their nest and make her go away. They kill her if she refuses to release her eggs. About 2 weeks ago I had an unexplained death of a Gourami now I have two (what look like males) chasing around a single young female (at least I think it's a female - they are all the same species and so it's hard to tell and each sex looks similar)

Will I be an evil person if I just let nature take it's course with the babies? Also will they kill her if we keep taking their invisible nests away so should we go ahead and stop cleaning for a couple of weeks and let the males build their nests until she delivers? What really pisses me off is that all the large Gourami are from mistakes made from the same company - in each case I was ordering a dwarf Gourami and they substituted wit the large gourami for my 29 gallon tank - way to small for a fish that size. I bought a 50 gallon acrylic tank and stand which was pricey but i don't want to have to move up to a 75 gallon for what would be a $5 fish that I don't even like.
No advice, sorry.
Just offering some sympathy; this sounds like a nightmare.
 

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